Toxic
by Noisiboi
Summary: When what was supposed to be a joyful wedding night spirals rapidly into an assassination attempt to eliminate what remained of the remnant Overwatch team, a vengeful Genji is out for blood and may find himself relying completely on the only suspect of the crime... Amelie Lacroix, herself. {WidowGenji; Other pairings as well!}
1. Chapter 1: The Widow's Kiss

Toxic: A WidowGenji Story

Written By Noisiboi

…

Chapter 1: The Widow's Kiss

… 

* * *

Genji readjusted his tie uncomfortably, staring at himself in the mirror through the thin, green visor of his helmet. He knew already that he would just look weird, having this weaponized, metal bodysuit underneath a… tux, he thought he heard Angela call it.

Though half of him thanked God that he had to have a helmet covering his face in order to keep him alive. Because if he didn't, he knew everyone would see his flushed expression from having to wear such a silly outfit.

"How are the others wearing these clown suits so confidently?" he thought out loud, "My father would certainly be dishonored to see me going with these nonsensical customs."

Angela giggled at him in amusement, knowing him more than well enough to see how embarrassed he was, "Aw, but you look so cute in a tux, Genji!" she exclaimed from the doorway, her German accent carrying prevalently in her voice.

Her tall, slim figure was adorned in a dress navy blue in color that ended mid-thigh with velvet straps the wrapped around her arms and connected to back of the dress right underneath her shoulders. Her blonde hair was done up in its usual manner but her hair looked glossier and like it had more time put into every strand in contrast her usual messy bangs and ponytail.

She looked beautiful as ever.

"Cute is what one would call a young a child. I am not a child, so if I look cute, my father must be rolling around in his grave right now," Genji grumbled.

Mercy rolled her eyes lightly and walked over to him, stopping between him and the mirror he was looking at himself through so as to make sure he was looking at her instead, "You know that's not what I meant, you grouch," she teased, adjusting his green tie the way it was supposed to look, "At least we got one that matches your armor. It looks nice on you."

Genji looked down as her hands shifted a mere couple times and the tie was instantly fixed thanks to her handiwork, "I don't think I would have been able to attend this ceremony without your help, Angela. It seems you've rescued me yet again. Thank you."

The blonde doctor blushed at the gesture and smiled, "Oh, stop. I make it my duty to help people… my best friend is no exception to the rule."

The metal-suited ninja smirked behind his mask, "I'm still waiting for the day you finally let me return the favor, Doctor Ziegler."

Angela chuckled amusedly and stepped back from him to reassure herself that his suit was prim and proper with a quick gaze of him, "As the former chief medical officer of Overwatch… I'm afraid I simply must refuse any form of compensation or service from you, Mister Shimada." She winked.

She could practically feel the eye roll Genji just gave her behind his helmet.

A giggle escaped her lips and she tugged on his sleeve to get him to follow her, "Now hurry up and come on, we're already late enough as is because of your griping."

Genji reluctantly followed, stumbling over himself lightly from the embarrassment of being seen in the tux.

When they reached the doors to the sanctuary, her eyes narrows at him, "And for goodness sake, stop calling this a ceremony. It's Ana and Reinhardt's wedding!"

And with that, she opened up the door to the sanctuary and pulled Genji inside post-haste. 

* * *

Genji stood towards the back of the line of groomsmen with Torbjorn, a very short old man from Sweden with stiff, graying-blond locks and a face grizzled with age, at the front of the line as the best man that everyone knew Reinhardt would choose. The old men were inseparable friends. Ahead of Genji, besides Torbjorn, were Jack Morrison, the once inspirational co-leader of Overwatch now an old ex-soldier with a seemingly permanent frown, Jesse McCree, the cowboy marksman of Overwatch trained by the late Gabriel Reyes of Blackwatch, and Winston, the former head scientist and mind of the team and essentially the one that brought everyone back together after the group's official disbanding.

The ninja at the back of the group had to admit, seeing a gorilla with a tuxedo and glasses was probably a lot weirder to look at than a cyborg with a tie that matched his green visor. But then again, the group as a whole was just plain odd to look at.

Genji looked across the altar to see the bridesmaids.

At the front was Fareeha Amari, Ana's fully-grown daughter and one of the newer additions to the group, as the maid of honor. Far in the back behind her was Angela Ziegler, the former medic of the team and the one who saved Genji's life as well as put him in the robotic suit that keeps him alive to this day.

Angela smiled at Genji lightly and gave a thumbs up to make sure Genji knew he was doing fine, since Genji had never participated in the wedding of another culture's tradition before. Because of that, Angela made sure that he knew he was doing fine any chance she could get.

Genji gave a nod since she couldn't see him give a reassuring smile in return, due to his mask.

Who stood in front of Angela consisted of Lena Oxton, the pilot and youngest member of the bridesmaids and groomsmen present, and the first two bridesmaids seemed to be either Ana's sisters or maybe distant family members of hers, that Genji wouldn't recognize.

Genji's observations of everyone present at the altar of the church were sharply interjected by the priest conducting the marriage for Ana and Reinhardt starting with, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate…"

The tuxedo-wearing ninja tuned out the priest's speech almost instantly and his eyes widened a little behind his mask. He meant no disrespect to the priest or to the ceremony itself, but merely was finding himself in an unprecedented awe at what he saw between the marrying fiancées.

The faces they wore, the smiles across their lips, the gentle redness of their cheeks, and most of all the warm glow that seemed to encase them even when they weren't touching. Just standing across from one another, eyes locked with each other lovingly.

Genji took in every fine detail of this once in a lifetime moment he was witnessing. Even with Ana's one eye missing behind her eyepatch, her grayed hair, and the wrinkles on her face, Genji didn't see an old veteran sniper. He saw a young woman, warmth gleaming in her eyes as she gazed up at the love of her life. The warmth of care for her own knight in shining armor.

Even with the receded hairline of Reinhardt, his thick white beard that only emphasized his old age, and his scarred, battle-hardened face, Genji didn't see an elderly knight of war. He only saw a man fresh in his youth with eyes brimming full of passion and drive. A drive to love and protect the woman in front of him as long as they both shall live.

Genji couldn't stop staring at them for the extent of the service, his heart full of admiration for the old couple at last finding their chance to finalize the love between them that they held for one another ever since the beginning of the Omnic Crisis.

Before he even knew it, Genji heard the last words of the priest declare, "I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

At hearing those fateful words, Ana leaned up on her tiptoes to try to make up for the towering height of her new husband, Reinhardt grinning from ear to ear as he bent down so she wouldn't have to lean up too far as their lips met in the middle in a tender, gentle kiss.

The kiss seemed to last a small eternity and held the passion of a finale of grand fireworks.

Once their kiss finally ended, they turned to the small crowd of people in the pews and everyone watching immediately stood up in unison as the priest exclaimed to everyone present, "I would now like to present to you… Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm."

The crowd instantly broke into an applause, Torbjorn wiping a tear from his cheek as he watched, sniffing, "Argh, dammit, I promised myself I wouldn't do this!" he said in his thick Swedish accent.

About that time, Genji realized how intently he was staring and he looked down to make sure he wouldn't stare at them in such a way again as the married couple made their way down the long church aisle, wide smiles on their faces as the crowd of their friends and families clapped for them. The bridesmaids paired with the groomsmen started to walk down the aisle not far behind them, in perfect formation, Genji being the last one to walk across the altar to meet Angela there, holding an arm out for her to take. A smile crossed her lips and she took it so they could make their way down the aisle behind the other bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Genji kept his eyes aimed at the floor, knowing by now Angela would have already been able to tell that something was off about him.

Sure enough, they only got off the altar when Angela whispered to him in a concerned tone, "What's wrong? You looked like you were about to get sick when the priest finished marrying them. Are you alright?"

She of all people knew almost everything about him just by instinct. She should by now, after all she spent at least a month taking care of him on the brink of death all those years ago, then proceeding to become his close friend, and even further on than that, she became his loyal partner in battle. They could read each other with ease, and Genji liked it that way. Ever since he lost his relationship with his brother, he felt relieved to have somebody who knew him so deeply like Angela did.

Genji thought over his choice of words before deciding to be blunt, whispering to her so as to not draw too much attention from the married couple at the front, "I think I want what they have."

Angela was surprised by that response, "And what is it that they have, that you want?"

He looked at her, his voice serious as he said, "Their love for each other. Their inspirational commitment," he went on, "Ever since we brought down Talon… I've just felt like something was missing. I've found tranquility in Nepal, friendship in all of you, peace in taking down Talon. But I have never found love quite like Ana and Reinhardt have. Love that transcends years of being apart and even during times where they questioned if either of them were still alive. While witnessing the moment of their marriage, I found myself wishing to know what they felt. I wanted to feel it too."

Angela listened with wide eyes looking up at him.

Genji looked down, "Is it wrong to feel that way? After my years in Nepal with Master Zenyatta, my heart should feel complete. I should have no desires to give my heart away. Have I truly failed my Master, Angela…?"

He was stopped by feeling Angela's hand on the metal-covered skin of his hand, his eyes averting from the ground to her again.

"You're still human, Genji. Just like the rest of us. I know you have a tendency to forget that, but that's why I'm going to make sure that changes. I won't rest until you stop forgetting your humanity," she winked knowingly.

He frowned a bit nervously in response to that, "How do you plan to do that?"

A smile appeared on her thin lips again, "We have to find you a girlfriend!"

Genji's face lit up with blush, "A-A girlfriend? I haven't had one of those since we—" he suddenly stopped talking at noticing a flash of light reflecting off a transparent glass surface towards one of the balconies of the church, the surface the light was reflecting from having to only be a few inches in diameter at the most. His visor worked as a natural filter of sunlight so he wouldn't be blinded by the sun or any sort of flashbang during combat, so he scanned over each balcony in search for the strange light that appeared.

Angela frowned, "Genji, is something wrong?"

He didn't answer, his eyes merely trailing downwards from the balconies to the newlywed couple heading for the door leading out of the sanctuary, Ana holding Reinhardt's arm as he reached up for the handle of the door to throw it open wide.

Ana stood out from the other bridesmaids. Her dress was long and white, velvet in material with the skirt of the dress rippling its way to the floor behind her before ending at the hem of the dress almost brushing the carpet beneath her white slippers.

But all it took was the pull of a finger, the loud bang of a gunshot breaking through the applause of the room and the organ music serenading the couple's ears as they walked down the aisle. All it took was a split second for the dress to suddenly become rapidly stained in red, Ana dropping forward to the floor before Reinhardt could catch her.

Cries of fear filled the room and the perfect formation of the bridesmaids and groomsmen broke apart from the shock of hearing gunfire from seemingly nowhere.

"Ana! No!" Reinhardt cried out, dropping to his knees next to Ana and holding her close against his chest as blood drained out of the new hole in her back that the bullet was lodged inside.

Ana stared up at him with pained eyes as she tried to keep herself up, clinging to her husband to stay alive as she fell limply against him.

Genji's pupils dilated in shock and his gaze instantly snapped back up towards the balconies to find a dark, feminine figure crouched against the railing of the balcony, a sniper rifle armed and ready to fire another shot.

He stepped forward and to distract them from whoever the assassin's next target was going to be by barking out, "Sniper in the balcony! Everyone get down!"

Almost instantly, the sniper barrel was aimed in Genji and Angela's direction and Angela let out a sharp gasp, "Genji!" And the ninja reacted with lightning-quick reflexes, throwing himself in front of Angela and whipping his arm out to automatically activate the built-in ammo supply of shurikens in his mechanical suit, firing off three shurikens in a straight line at the shooter, the metallic stars spinning rapidly straight at them

Two bullets left the chamber of the sniper rifle that destroyed the shurikens on impact but before they could fire off the third shot, the third shuriken landed right into the barrel of the gun, causing a small explosion in the shooter's face and causing smoke to plume into the air, "Agh!" the shooter cried before finding themselves cornered in a room full of former Overwatch agents.

With a sharp, "Tsk." The sniper clicked the button of a detonator strapped to the side of their gun to instantly cause every stained glass window on the left wing of the room to explode and send shattered glass and debris raining down on the crowd, who once again cried out in fear as they all ducked for cover from the explosions.

At seeing the left wing of the church was now gone, the sniper fired a grappling hook off their wrist to the collapsing roof of the church before kicking off the railing and swinging down in a precise arch to lunge straight out the missing side of the building, back-flipping midair to land on the building right next to the church.

At the moonlight now shining in through the building, Genji was able to see the shooter more clearly whilst he kept Angela down to protect her from raining debris.

He barely made out the metallic rose-colored suit adorning a female figure, the skin of the feminine shooter that was visible seemed to be a cold shade of blue but Genji couldn't tell if that was truly her skin color or if that was an illusion of the moonlight.

Then the shooter's eyes darted back at the church, her eyes locking with Genji.

Many small, red lenses for eyes met a glowing, green visor for a split second before she shot a challenging smirk and took off running across the rooftop.

Genji's teeth gritted together before feeling Angela's hand on his shoulder. He looked back to find Angela staring right into his visor with a deathly serious look, "Go get them. You can do it."

He gave a sharp nod, turning and sprinting across the pews, up the wall and then lunged high into the sky to land on the roof the sniper was on mere seconds ago as he pursued the mysterious shooter. Genji ran as fast as he could and even though he knew the shooter had a good head start on him, he would be much faster than her. He was BUILT to be faster.

Kicking his sprint up to max speed, a green glow became him and he rushed forward, lunging over the sky-scraping height of the next building over and landing on the top of it with perfect aim by planting his feet down onto the concrete of the roof to steady himself.

But before he could continue his chase, he came to a screeching halt at seeing the shooter right in front of him on the ledge of the building, sniper rifle aimed at his face and a simper across her lips.

"I knew you would come. You did before, after all," she chuckled darkly.

Genji froze in place, staring her down and knowing full-well that the bullet of her sniper would hit him a lot faster than he could dodge it. His eyes scanned her up and down to take in who could potentially be the one who ends his life tonight.

Her skin was most definitely blue. There was no doubt about it seeing her this close. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen blue skin like that before… he had to of seen it somewhere.

A black helmet with at least seven red, glowing lenses across the front of it covered her head down to her nose skillfully covering her eyes to hide her true identity with a ponytail coming out the back of it, her hair a dark, blue-black color that glistened in the light of the moon. Her slim body was adorned with the metallic, rose-colored suit that he saw earlier when she made her escape. It covered most of her body aside from her cleavage which was very much exposed as well as the majority of her back down to just above her tailbone. She most likely kept herself rather revealing like this to distract her opponents during close-quarters combat.

Or at least that's what Genji hoped the semi-revealing outfit was for.

The sleeve and glove of her right hand was missing, her trigger hand it seemed. This revealed a tattoo spanning the length of her inner forearm that seemed to be written in French that he wouldn't be able to read if he tried.

High-heeled boots that looked almost alien in appearance soared up her long legs before ending above her knees, a sort of high-tech mine strapped to her waist by a loose-fitting belt. In fact the only thing that seemed to be keeping her belt on her practically nonexistent waistline was the seductive width of her hips.

Genji glared at her behind the visor of his mask, "Who are you?"

A sick giggle escaped her lips, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Why are you doing this? Did someone hire you to attack us?" Genji asked, ignoring the sardonic, silver-tongued tone in her voice.

"So many questions…" she sighed, "I should have figured five years in Nepal with a bunch of machines would make you uninteresting to converse with."

Genji's face paled behind his helmet, "You know of that? I was specifically told that would remain confidential information for nobody's knowledge but Overwatch."

She smirked yet again, "Precisely."

He glared suspiciously, "Do I know you?"

A long silence settled between them.

"…"

Finally, a satisfied chuckle left her throat, "Now you're asking the right question," she reached up and clicked a button on the side of her helmet and instantly it let out a small sound, activating the gears inside the helmet to retract the lens pieces of the helmet and reveal the eyes beneath.

Genji stepped back in shock at seeing this girl he knew from countless years ago now, "Amelie Lacroix…!" he gasped, his words a hushed tone as if it were a secret.

Her amber-yellow eyes narrowed at him, "Ah, good, you remember me for who I once was," she smirked, "I feel it makes a small comfort to at least know the last face that you see. Goodbye, dear Genji."

His pupils dilated at her words and on instinct, he reached behind him and whipped his wakizashi sword out of the sheath he had under his white suit shirt, tearing the back of the shirt to shreds as he yanked it out of its sheath and slashed outward at the very last second as Amelie pulled the trigger of her overcharged rifle, the bullet smashing against the edge of Genji's blade and deflecting back at Amelie.

The French assassin sidestepped the deflected bullet and fired again and again as Genji lunged at her upon seeing an opening.

The cyborg ninja sprinted at full speed toward her, deflecting the bullet with unbelievable precision before reaching and slicing in an outward arch with his sword, Amelie kicking off the ground and somersaulting over his head as she dropped her proximity mine at his feet and landed behind him.

Genji only had time to take notice of the mine before it shot a plume of purple gas right into his face, forcing him to cover his mouth and visor to protect himself from the toxic gas.

This was the only distraction Amelie needed to bring her gun up and open fire at the hip, switching the gun's control mechanism to automatic fire as her bullets sprayed at him with deadly aim, several clipping him in the sides and arms but none able to pierce his torso before he rolled underneath the spray of bullets and without taking in a single breath, he kicked her leg out from under her and simultaneously slammed his palm against her chest to take her down.

Upon taking her to the ground, both jumped into action, Genji finding himself on top of her first with his sword to her throat, "Don't move!"

Amelie gave him the slightest shadow of a grin, "I hope you know how to take your own advice…"

Genji glanced down to see what she was referring to when he found the barrel of her gun pressed against his chin, her finger on the trigger. He glared down at her sharply.

She giggled in a teasing way, "I can't see your face right now, but I bet I can guess what you're thinking right now. Something along the lines of… 'I put myself in a stalemate'?"

Genji let out a gruff, "Hm," and replied, "Not quite. More or less wondering how you managed to miss me at point-blank range. Aren't professional snipers supposed to rarely miss?"

Amelie simpered, "I'm not a professional sniper. I'm the best sniper you could ever hope to meet."

"And you missed your target."

With a light laugh, she whispered, "Oh, Genji. I never miss my target. When I want someone dead…" she leaned up close to him and used her gauntlet to knock his sword away, dropping her gun and grabbing the side of his head roughly, "… They die."

Genji's eyes widened as she clicked the precise button under the jaw plate of his helmet to make his face mask slide open and expose his scarred, pale face.

Waiting for her to do something, anything that would kill him, obstruct his breathing, or worse, he winced and tried to dart back up from her only to find her hand holding the back of his head and her neck craning upward so her lips could settle against her own in a passionate, sudden kiss.

Genji froze at the kiss, his eyes widening in shock.

It was not a peck on the lips or a short-lived kiss. This was a full, passionate display that entranced him in every single area of his morality that told him this was wrong.

Amelie shut her eyes into the kiss, this being all the time she needed to press the button of the second detonator on the side of her rifle.

His pupils became the meager size of periods as he heard a powerful explosion in the distance.

In the direction of the church where all of his friends were at.

He pulled his lips away from hers and looked up at a pillar of smoke and fire rising into the sky from a destroyed building below. Screams of panic and the sirens of police cars echoed through the streets below and he glared down at her darkly, "You. You were stalling until I gave you the chance to detonate the bomb."

Amelie stared up at him with her narrow, yellow eyes, face void of emotion, "When I want someone dead… They die."

Genji's mind raced with thoughts immediately.

Did Angela get out safely? Did any of them get out safely? Who's dead and who's still under the rubble dying?

He knew he had no time to process these thoughts as he glowered down at her with rage-filled eyes and spat out, "Amelie!"

She gave a slow, dark chuckle, "Amelie is dead. Only Widowmaker remains."

Genji's face mask slid closed again with a sharp, metallic sound, "I don't believe that. Amelie Lacroix would never kill the only family I have left!" And with that, he turned his sword around and smacked the bottom of the hilt against her temple to knock her unconscious.

Amelie's eyes went wide for a split second before shutting upon impact as her lights flickered out.

…

* * *

 **A/N: Hey there, readers! I hope you enjoyed the read, I sure had fun writing it.**

 **Okay, so this whole story probably left a LOT of blanks and unanswered questions, but just so you know that is my intention. Questions will be answered as the story goes on, so rest assured the blanks will be filled!** **All I can reveal to you is that the story takes place after the events of the Mondatta assassination and the attempt at nabbing the Doomfist. Without giving any spoilers, there's currently a short-lived moment of peace after Reaper and Widowmaker disappeared. And the peace is what sets the events of this story in motion.**

 **So a little background on why I wrote this story, a little while ago I was scrolling through the FanFiction archive and I've always kind of been caught between the pairings Genji x Mercy and Genji x Widowmaker. So I looked up both and I found Gency in several places, it even had a good collection of fanart...**

 **But I found nothing for Genji x Widowmaker! Not even fanart!** **So I decided to take initiative and write (possibly) the very first story for them.**

 **Here's to a new pairing I'm throwing out there: WidowGenji!**

 **Thanks for reading! -Nb**


	2. Chapter 2: Stalemate

**{A/N:} Hello there! I'm back with a second chapter, and I'm on a role with my writing habits, with school taking up most of my free time! :)**

 **Anywho, before the story, I would like to sincerely thank those who have reviewed, followed, and/or favorited, any and all feedback is appreciated so much more than you know. To all my loyal readers, I hope you enjoy this second chapter even more than the first! I'll do my best to keep up with my writing and I just hope you can keep up with your reading and enjoyment!**

 **Thank ya, guys.**

 **-Nb  
**

* * *

Chapter 2: Stalemate

…

Genji stood in the shadows of the interrogation room, unseen by the only other pair of eyes in the room besides himself. Amelie's.

She had enough chains tying her down to her seat to keep a tank from moving, the steel chair beneath her being nailed to the floor along with the stainless, albeit dented table that was set in front of her for tests and examination studies. Her helmet and weapons were taken to forensics for further study, her suit and even her hair-tie were confiscated by the authorities and she was left only in a baggy, orange jumpsuit with an ID number stamped on the breast of it.

After the events of the previous night, Genji took the unconscious Widowmaker into custody and went straight for the church. The situation was bad, dire even. And that was still putting it light.

Genji could hear an intense argument in the other room with his robotically-enhanced senses.

"She detonated a bomb that levelled a church AND a business office, killed 16 innocent civilians, injured 36 more, and put 5 of our most trusted friends in critical condition, and you're asking me to be calm with her?!" shouted an enraged Winston.

An agitated and clearly stressed-out Angela sternly replied, "I'm asking you to honor her rights as a human being! You may have been put in charge of interrogation, but I'm staying here to make sure the law is followed!"

"This is ludicrous! You are acting like a sympathizer for this murderous assassin when our friends could potentially die because of her!" he retorted.

"And you are acting like a complete animal!"

"I AM an animal!"

A sly smirk slipped across Amelie's lips as she finally voiced a thought, "You can hear them too, can't you? Their pointless debate on how to handle me." Her voice carried out from her lips in a smooth, French accent. But not the relaxing sort of smooth. The unsettling, spider-silk thread sort of smooth that left you conflicted on if she was just being social or if she was planning your demise between every word of her sentence.

Genji glared suspiciously, "How did you know I was here? I haven't made a sound since you woke up in your seat and nobody saw me come in."

A dark chuckle escaped her throat, "I can hear your heart beating… A dull, mechanical tone. Pumping only due to the metallic shell encasing your body at all times. Beating only at the cost of your own humanity."

"I'm far more human than you showed yourself to be tonight, Amelie. You have a lot of explaining to do."

Amelie turned her head the slightest bit so Genji could see but the corner of her amber eye, "That's a naïve thing to say. That you are more human than I. The point of being human is that you are conscious enough to make your own moral decisions. Did I not make my own conscious decision tonight? Did I not choose to shoot your friend? And did I not willingly trigger the explosion that might have killed what family you have left?"

Genji slowly walked over to stand beside the table, his eyes staring daggers into her own, even with the green visor in his mask concealing them, "I don't believe you did."

Amelie glared up at him in a condescending fashion, "How stupid can you be? You are the only one who believes that, if you mean that. Everyone impacted by the events of last night knows what happened and have all the evidence they need to see clearly who did it. Whose side are you even on?"

He shook his head and turned away, "The girl I once knew would not have done this. She could not. I think someone made the decision for you."

She stared up at him in disbelief for a moment before giving a brief chortle, "Genji Shimada… Playing the hero for me again. A man after my own cold, dead heart."

"Did you tell your husband that too, before you murdered him?"

"Never even once."

A dry chuckle escaped him, "I'm not sure which is worse. The fact that you admitted that just now, or the fact that I want to believe you."

With some struggle from the shackles keeping her tied to her chair, she shifted one of her legs over the other and smirked at him ever so lightly, "Are either of those options really so bad?" she hummed.

"What happened, Amelie? Did you never love your husband at all to go so far as to murder him?"

She rolled her eyes in an irritated way and looked away from him, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Genji merely stared down at her expectantly.

"Love is for children, Shimada. I was young and naïve, but life taught me earlier than most that love is not a feeling but an idea. An idea that helped me grow up. My husband served his purpose in helping me mature… and when I matured, my emotional attachment to him became…" she leaned back in her seat as much as she was capable of, "…expendable."

"So your loyalty to your employer became stronger than your loyalty to your husband?" he asked curiously.

She raised a thin, blue-black brow and smirked amusedly, "You still think someone is controlling my actions."

He nodded to confirm her thought, "I do. In fact I am certain of it. Even when separating yourself from the people you love, you do not just lose your loyalty to them so suddenly. The love remains, untarnished and loyal, even when worlds apart."

A knowing simper graced her expression suddenly, "Using yourself as an example?"

"Yes. I live by example, something I think you're incapable of right now," he answered in a stern tone.

"Do you think I am weak?"

"I think you're trapped."

Amelie looked to the silver, mirror-like glass window behind Genji as she replied, "You think I am the one who's trapped. But maybe you should go back and reassess your casualties from last night. Then come back and tell me… Who is really trapped?"

Genji became silent in response, looking to the window and just now noticing that the distracted, argumentative voices had ceased behind the window. The eyes watching them through the window were invisible but both Genji and Amelie knew they were there.

Knowing that Amelie's words were more aimed at those watching them than they were at him, he turned to the window and crossed his arms casually, "Winston, Doctor Ziegler. Care to join us?"

An audible buzz rang out from the door to the interrogation room, meaning it was now unlocked.

Genji stared at the door for a long moment but nobody came in.

"It seems they are expecting you, Genji," Amelie broke the silence with a sarcastic smile.

"Seems that way. Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back," he retorted with equal sarcasm, despite his monotone, walking over to the door and turning the handle to the door to exit the interrogation room.

She glared at the back of his head, obviously too tied down to move more than an inch, "You're so funny."

* * *

Genji walked into the room that Angela and Winston were in, attached directly to the room he was just in by the mirror-like window that peered into the interrogation room.

"You called?" Genji asked, his tone low and mechanical as it usually was.

Winston waved an arm outward in greeting, "Genji! I must admit, I had no idea you were in there during our previous interrogation attempt. How long were you in there for?"

Genji smirked a bit beneath his mask and didn't even get the chance to answer before Winston added, "Actually… Doesn't matter," he chuckled sheepishly.

Angela gave him a concerned look and moved onto the topic at hand, "Genji, what was that in there?"

He crossed his arms casually, "I was giving my best shot at an interrogation. I haven't done enough since this all started and officially this is an Overwatch operation so I should be doing my part any chance I get."

She frowned a bit, but the frown instantly became a reassuring smile, "Genji, you chased down the shooter and took her into custody before she could get away with what she did. That by itself has taken a lot off of everyone's plates, already."

Genji's face reddened behind his mask at remembering the events of the previous night, the kiss he shared with Amelie being the first kiss he'd had with someone in years.

Winston cleared his throat in a deep tone, "She's right, Genji, in the sense of you already doing so much to help us out in this investigation. But after what we saw in that interrogation room, between you and this Widowmaker, I think I've found the perfect solution to prying information out of her brain."

Angela merely listened, Genji being rather surprised at already knowing what Winston had in mind.

Winston pointed at Genji with a single, thick-skinned finger, "I'm putting you, and you alone, in charge of interrogation."

Angela's eyes widened, "Just Genji and no one else? Winston, is that really such a good idea? She's clearly an operative of some revived Talon group to have any lasting grudge on our friends, you know full well what they're capable of…"

The gorilla let out a hearty laugh, "And you know full well what Genji is capable of! Come, Angela, you underestimate our Overwatch operatives. Our group has some of the strongest, most talented minds in the world and Genji is no exception to this rule."

Genji nodded, "This time, I must side with Winston, Doctor Ziegler. I am more than prepared for such a task as an interrogation. As you've already witnessed first-hand, I have been the only one thus far to be successful in getting any information or even a reaction out of her."

Winston nodded and looked to Angela with a careful look, pondering his words carefully so as to not upset her over this matter anymore than she already was, "Doctor Ziegler… He is correct, I think that it would be best if we—"

"Fine," she interjected, a sigh escaping her lips and a hand running through her thick, blonde locks, "But he's still not fully qualified for an interrogation alone, Winston."

The science-proficient primate scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Well, no I suppose he doesn't have to do it alone, but if you took notice, the Widowmaker assassin seemed more willing to open up to him while we were distracted and she believed that they were free to speak alone."

Those words alone were enough to make Angela suspicious as to what was going on beneath the surface between Genji and Amelie, but she said nothing of it. Rather, she gave a wide smile and pressed her hands together as if she'd come to a conclusion on the matter, "Then we will let them be alone with a recording device in the studio here! After each recorded interrogation session, I will take the video clips and the recordings and work with Genji during the later work hours to try to decipher what drove her to commit the assassination attempt."

Winston and Genji were both taken aback by the idea, both looking to each other to see if they were thinking the same thing and nodded to one another.

Genji looked to Angela again, "That would be a great assistance to me in the interrogation. And equally, it would provide a more comfortable environment for Amelie to speak to me in."

Angela passed a glance at Winston to see if she was the only one who noticed Genji was referring to Widowmaker by her original name still, despite Widow's distinct demand that she only be referred to as Widowmaker.

But judging by Winston exclaiming firmly, "Excellent! Then we have a plan of action!"

Her eyes trailed back to Genji uncertainly at that, "The Widowmaker has been going through examination since she regained consciousness and she's showing signs of fatigue. I think it would be best to call it a day and Genji can start his interrogation on her tomorrow."

"I agree. Besides we should…" Winston's grizzled, furry face grew a dreary look, "… start wrapping things up for the day. So we can visit everyone at the hospital."

Genji's eyes turned to look at Amelie through the mirror-like window, her eyelids half shut from drowsiness, and he nodded silently in reply. With a majority of the only family he had left all in various forms of critical condition, he needed to know what the situation was. How bad things were going to be from now on. All three of them needed to know, if they were going to get to the bottom of this investigation and stay alive doing it.

Angela made her way to the door and opened it up for Winston to go out first since he was closest to it of the group, "Yes, we should get ready to go now. No calls from the hospital have been made so far, so that's a good sign. But that doesn't mean anything is for certain. Critical condition is not a hopeful term in the medical world."

Winston made his way out the door first, his eyes turned down at the floor with an obvious look of being lost in his own thoughts. He used to only get that look when faced with a problem in one of his experiments, but since the events of last night, he'd been wearing that expression a lot. They all had in their own ways.

Genji went to leave the room behind the gorilla when Angela suddenly shut the door very gently before he could leave, a stern look on her face.

An unseen look of confusion crossed his expression, "Angela?"

She looked up at him, the corner of her lips quirking a bit, "You're hiding something… there's a reason the Miss Lacroix is so responsive to you, isn't there?"

Genji looked down from her, "… It's nothing important, Angela. Nothing about it is relevant to the case, other than the fact that we know each other from a long time ago. And even then, the only relevancy it brings up is that it makes her more responsive to my questions."

"I don't mean to pry. But please, it might help me understand the situation between you two better if you tell me."

"It's not important, Angela, please don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried about your relationship with her. I'm worried about you."

"It wasn't a relationship. It was—"

"An affair?"

"No!" Genji shook his head, rubbing the spot where his temple was on the side of his helmet with a sigh, "Look, I need to take Amelie— to take Widowmaker— back to solitary confinement. I'll meet you and Winston at the hospital, I'm right behind you, I promise."

He reached for the doorknob and Angela let go of it so Genji could open the door and take his leave, "Genji…"

Genji looked back at her out of the corner of his visor.

"I'm sorry… please, don't be upset with me."

He looked away from her for a moment before replying, "I can't be upset with you, Doctor Ziegler. You're only trying to help, I know. We'll talk more at the hospital." And with that, he left the room to return to interrogation where Amelie was waiting.

Angela watched him enter the room through her view from the window for a moment, before pressing a button on the studio's control panel to release all of Amelie's chains aside from the cuffs suspending her wrists and hands in place. With that, she took her leave as well, rushing to catch up with Winston who already had a head start on her.

* * *

Amelie took slow, steady steps down the hallway so as to not alert all the security turrets mounted on the ceiling but a few yards from each other. Genji walked behind her, hand pressed against the spot on her back between her shoulder blades as he guided her back to solitary confinement.

They had been walking in silence for a good five minutes before Amelie finally broke the silence, looking back at him and smirking as she whispered, "You can put your hand a little lower, I'm sure the auto-turrets don't mind," she snickered darkly.

Genji almost immediately replied with, "You're not setting me up for that, Miss Lacroix. I know you're only going to trick me into doing what you want."

She let out a dry chuckle, "Oh? What could I possibly trick you into doing? Shutting down all the security turrets and taking these cuffs off of me?"

"Very funny."

"About as funny as you are," she retorted.

He turned a corner with her and looked up to see the holographic sign suspended between the walls and the ceiling above it that read 'Solitary Confinement.'

"Well, I'm guessing there's not going to be any convincing you to make my solitary confinement for the night a little less solitary, oui?" she asked rhetorically.

"Uh… oui?" he replied.

She smirked a bit as they approached her cell, "Don't know much French, do you?"

"None at all. I have friends from all over the world and I usually pick up bits and pieces of their language but… we didn't get to know each other long enough for me to pick up yours."

She yawned lightly, "You could have stuck around a little while longer."

"And what? Your husband would be alive right now?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. My husband was the target, you were not. Technically, I can't guarantee you wouldn't have been my next target after him but…" she smirked, "That's history now."

"With luck, I'll get to the bottom of this and history can be rewritten. You'll be free…" Genji stopped with her at her cell, and turned her head away so he could enter the key to unlock her cell, the door suddenly sliding straight open from the floor to the ceiling, revealing a pure white room inside with a single bed and a metal toilet.

She turned to him afterwards and smirked, "You always did like to think you were a hero, Shimada. That you could fix any broken girl's problems with just a flash of that pretty smile under the mask and some soothing words. But you're going to figure out the hard way that I'm not being controlled. The girl you once knew and the girl you know now are one and the same. And I have to admit, I almost feel sorry for you. That things must be the way they are."

Genji gave her a light push to get her to walk into her cell, "You're wrong again, Amelie. I was never trying to be anyone's hero… and I'm still not," he trailed off, Amelie turning to face him with a blink of her narrow, golden eyes.

He reached his hand up to rest his first two fingers on the button to shut her cell door, but he paused before he could press it.

"I'm just a man trying to keep others from walking the path I've walked. Seeing the things I've seen. And I know you've already been through everything that I have, even worse than me actually," he looked back up at her, "But it's never too late to rewrite things for yourself. To find tranquility in the storm."

She listened to him closely, without a word.

"I'm not your hero, Amelie. I'm just an old friend trying to help."

"And that is where _you_ are wrong, Genji."

A dark simper crossed her lips.

"You are my hero. And I'm going to make sure you regret every last second you spend on me."

With that, Genji pressed the button to shut her cell door with a loud, sharp sound. He looked down the hallway for a long moment before turning and making his way to back to the main section of the base so he could get ready to meet Angela and Winston at the hospital.

Inside her cell, Amelie continued to stare at the door, long after Genji locked her inside and left. Her knowing smirk would not fade.

"C'est la vie, Genji Shimada. C'est la vie."

…

* * *

 **{A/N:} Good Lord, you wanna talk about writing on an empty tank. I'm so tired. I didn't have a lot of time to do a spell check, so if any of you see errors or some story content that bugs you in any way, feel free to let me know and I'll be sure fix anything I missed between sessions of writing my next chapter. :)**

 **So? How's it looking so far? Think you got the Amelie and Genji situation figured out yet?**

 **All I can say is you may be surprised of what's really going on!**

 **But by all means, let me know what you think! I love to hear your opinions and I also reply to any feedback you give me (to those that review on accounts with PM-access) so don't leave me hangin'!**

 **Thanks so much, readers!**

 **-Nb**


	3. Chapter 3: Till Death Do Us Part

**{A/N:} Welcome back for another chapter, readers!**

 **Okay, this chapter is sure to be an answer to a lot of your unanswered questions (and maybe even bring up some new questions!) so I'm going to hop right into it.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Nb**

* * *

Chapter 3: Till Death Do Us Part

…

The low hum of the life support system that Ana was hooked up to filled the silence of the room, Genji sitting in his seat in the corner of the room silently. The occasional 'beep' of the heart rate monitor and Winston's fingers flipping through page after page of medical reports overlapped the continuous hum of the monitor to form a sort of monotone, hopeless orchestra of sounds.

Genji would occasionally look up at Reinhardt who was sitting at Ana's bedside, her wrinkled, dark-skinned hand cradled in his massive, pale one. Genji couldn't help but look between the woman on life support and the man clinging to her hand as if it could be the last time he would be able to do so. He couldn't help it because he felt to blame.

If it weren't for him and his past with Amelie, this could have all been prevented. The wedding would have gone through as planned and the reception would have been a grand evening of eating, dancing, and celebrating the gift of love.

But instead, because of Genji, here they were in a hospital room, praying to whatever each of them believed in that their loved ones would be granted mercy or in some of their cases just hoped desperately that this wouldn't be the last time they saw their dear friends.

Torbjorn was standing beside Reinhardt (and even with Reinhardt sitting, he was still taller than the Swedish mechanic), a hand on the taller man's shoulder as he tried to talk to him and comfort his friend through this difficult, uncertain time.

Genji kept his hands pressed together, hunched forward in his seat as he watched everyone in the room. A twinge of guilt nagged within the ninja's chest even now as everyone was just trying to find any sort of hope in this drastic situation.

The sounds of Angela's heeled boots came clicking back into the room after a long discussion she had with the medical staff about the conditions of everyone who were in critical condition still.

As everyone heard Angela come in, all stood with expectant, hopeful looks on their faces aside from Genji who remained sitting in case the Swiss doctor had bad news.

"What's the situation, Doctor Ziegler?" Winston immediately asked.

Angela held a clipboard in her hands, bags under her eyes and hair loose from her blonde head from obvious fatigue and stress, "All are in various degrees of stability… Nothing is for certain but a lot has changed."

Torbjorn grew a very serious look, his blond eyebrows furrowing as he listened, "Maybe give each piece of news one at a time. We can take it, dear."

The doctor looked up and sighed, "Where to begin…?"

Genji immediately looked up, "What is the situation with Morrison? He being alive and well would be good morale for our remaining team."

Angela grew a look of borderline disgust, "Jack is gone. Again. No critical condition, no status… Nothing. The explosion happened and he disappeared without a trace. He probably knew who was behind this before any of us did, and my guess is that he's probably alive and taking a different route than the rest of us, per the usual."

Genji's eyes turned back to the floor again, "So much for the morale boost. Let's just hope we don't get dragged back into another fight or we'll have to choose another team leader."

Winston asked next, "What of Lena? I've heard nothing about her since the blast."

Angela looked down sadly, "Lena wasn't severely injured when she was hit with a large chunk of debris while trying to speed her way out of the church when the explosion took place. It put her into comatose and her chronal accelerator is demolished. So not only is she in a coma for an unknown period of time, but she is suffering from chronal disassociation along with it. The doctors are losing track of her on a regular basis before she'll randomly appear back in her bed like she never left…"

The gorilla who made Lena's chronal accelerator looked down sadly, "Poor Lena… I'll start working on a new one for her right away. Even if she doesn't wake up for a while, the poor girl doesn't need this damned chronal disassociation to add onto it."

She nodded in reply, "That would be best for her. I don't meant to pressure you but she does need a new one as soon as possible."

Winston frowned sternly and held a hand up, "No, no, the more pressure the better. I work best under pressure and the better I work, the faster Lena gets her accelerator."

Torbjorn looked up next after Winston's determined reply and asked next, "And what of our Jesse McCree?"

Angela sighed at being asked about this one, as she still didn't want to think about it even though she knew he'd be spending a lot of time developing nanobots to assist in Jesse's extensive wounds, "Jesse suffered some of the worst of the injuries everyone sustained. He was impacted by a scattershot of debris and has harsh burns on his chest, legs and his right hand. Not to mention shattered ribs and punctured organs. If things go smoothly, then with therapy, he should get back onto his feet someday. It's just a hard road to recovery ahead."

Genji shut his eyes remorsefully. He'd had many conversations with McCree in the past, they were decent friends with each other by now. His heart went out to Jesse as well as his hopes for a smooth recovery as that was all he could truly do for Jesse at this point.

Reinhardt stayed close to Ana's bed protectively, "And what of my wife? And my daughter, Pharah?"

Genji's eyes opened a bit and he glanced up at Reinhardt curiously. His wording was odd and it made him wonder if Reinhardt was truly Pharah's father from ages past or if he was just showing a deeper care about Pharah as his new step-daughter by referring to her as his daughter.

Angela nodded understandingly as Reinhardt of all people deserved to hear news on these girls he cared so dearly about, "Ana was fortunate… I'm uncertain if the Widowmaker has bad aim with a sniper or if they just merely didn't plan on killing her, but the bullet hit nothing but her lung as well as a graze against her spine. She should be the first to recover. Her voice will be weak for a while until her lung fully heals. But, until we're able to seal the hole up enough with the assist of some biotic tech, we're keeping her under anesthetics. Should only take another day or two while we assess other injuries and the like." She smiled weakly. This was just one piece of good news among the massive collection of bad.

Reinhardt's face lightened a bit, but it was a small comfort, "And what of Pharah?"

The room became quiet and Genji braced himself for whatever might be revealed of her. Whether it be good or bad.

Angela looked down, "Pharah is the most unstable of the group… she's stepped in and out of death's door several times now and her body is mangled to the point that she can't move or feel anything. She's irresponsive and… the doctors are saying we should prepare for the worst, hope for the best."

Reinhardt's face paled in a way that Genji had never seen before. He was solemn and silent, not even sure how to receive the news that his only daughter was at death's door with little hope left.

"She was a hero when it happened though. A large piece of the roof collapsed and it would have crushed both Ana and two other nearby family members but Pharah was able to get all three of them out of the way at the price of taking the majority of the impact…"

"Enough," Reinhardt stopped her, "I already know how much of a hero she is. You do not need to explain to me what is already known."

Genji finally added in, "Reinhardt. I know it is painful to hear, but it is better to—"

"Genji, I hear you have been put in charge of this interrogation attempt on my wife's shooter. Did I hear correct?" he interjected, his voice bold and demanding of all ears around him as always.

The cyborg ninja remained silent for a moment, looking to Winston as if mentally asking if he was allowed to disclose that information.

Winston gave a subtle nod.

Genji looked back up at Reinhardt and nodded in response, "You heard correct. I am now in charge of their interrogation until further notice."

Reinhardt continued to hold Ana's hand desperately, his white, furrowed brows settling deeper above his beady eyes, one blue and the other pure white without a pupil from an old, large battle scar down the middle of it, "When you interrogate this suspected shooter… I just want you to keep one thing in mind, if you remember anything from this old knight."

He let go of Ana's hand and took a step closer, hunching forward so that the muscles in his shoulders and back rippled over one another, "This is an Overwatch-only investigation. That means the shooter plays by our rules. When you interrogate whoever this bastard is that shot my wife…" his eyes burned with rage, "… Do not go easy on them. Do whatever it takes to pry whatever you need out of that thick, emotionless skull of theirs. I want them to know what it's like to feel helpless and trapped. So please… give them my malice."

Genji's eyes widened a little beneath his mask at Reinhardt's words. Even he didn't expect the rather dark, spiteful hated in the German warrior's words.

Reinhardt's back straightened again slowly and he let out a deep sigh to calm himself, "I'm going to find wherever they've kept Pharah. And I'm going to make sure these doctors take the utmost care of my daughter… Good luck, Genji. Winston, Doctor Ziegler." He stated deeply as he took his leave from the room. Reinhardt didn't say any goodbye to Torbjorn because he knew the Swedish mechanic would stay by Ana's side.

Angela quickly nodded and stepped aside from the door for Reinhardt to go find Pharah. The younger girl was in a whole different section of the hospital due to the continuous unstable condition she was in.

Winston cleared his throat and nodded, "I should take my leave as well. I'm going to check up on the others in their individual rooms and then I'm calling it a night. Or at least I'm going to try," he admitted with a sheepish chuckle.

Torbjorn let out a dry chuckle in response, trying to get over the dreariness of the day still.

Angela smiled, "I think we all can agree on that. I'll probably do the same before I leave. Goodnight, Winston."

Winston gave everyone a big smile before heading out as well.

The Swiss doctor then folded her hands together and smiled warmly at Torbjorn, "Genji and I should go too. It's been a long day, and tomorrow may turn out even longer. So I think we'll just head out now and call it a day, rest our minds for the big day of investigation tomorrow, right, Genji?"

The ninja looked up, surprised. He didn't expect Angela to want to leave the hospital before anyone else so she must have wanted to talk about something personal. He couldn't blame her of course, everyone knew she'd be spending all her free time at the hospital for as long as it took for their friends to recover.

"Yes, that would serve us best in our investigation," Genji finally replied.

Torbjorn raised a thick, blonde brow, "Oh? You're leaving together, are ya?" he smirked.

Angela's cheeks instantly glowed pink in embarrassment, "Now, Torbjorn, you know it's not healthy to assume things…"

The Swede snickered knowingly, "I'm assuming nothing, ya kids go enjoy yourselves while ya still can. Lord knows, we all gotta long road ahead of us."

Genji chuckled amusedly, "Perhaps we should take the advice of our elders, Angela, otherwise he may never let us leave," he teased at Torbjorn to lighten the mood.

Torbjorn let out a loud, raspy laugh, "Ahh, the lack of respect in the kids these days! If I were a wee bit taller, I'd kick your rear-end!"

Genji let out a quiet laugh of amusement and nodded to the still bashful doctor beside him, "Let's head out now, Doctor Ziegler. Goodbye, old man."

The much shorter man winked as he took a seat beside Ana's bed, "Goodnight, ya two."

Angela gave a single wave of her hand, "Goodnight, Torbjorn!" And with that she quickly stepped out the door with Genji close behind her, the Japanese man shutting the door behind him as he left.

Once they were out, they were greeted by a solemn silence, which left Genji feeling it safe to ask, "I'm guessing you have something you wish to speak with me about."

Angela blinked in a surprised fashion before her eyes met the ground, a small frown gracing her pink lips, "Come on, let us walk as we speak," she turned and started to make her way to the elevators.

Genji walked along with her and stared over at her silently, expectantly.

Her teeth nibbled on her bottom lip lightly as she thought over her words cautiously, "I'm sorry for… asking you so many questions earlier. It wasn't right of me and I KNOW how serious you are about this investigation. I know you won't let any past feelings with her get in the way of your interrogation, whether they existed or not… All I did was pry."

"You had every right to suspect me, Angela, you know me better than anyone and I displayed a sense of weakness around her at the wrong time. You're putting the investigation first, just like I am, so I insist that you don't apologize. I mean it when I say that you have no reason to apologize for thinking rationally," Genji replied sternly.

"But I wasn't thinking rationally. I was thinking emotionally, and you were the one with the rational mindset."

"Angela…"

"You always were the more rational thinker of us both. Our feelings never got in the way during the Recall mission because of the amount of self-control you have," she went on, her voice cracking the slightest bit toward the end of her statement.

Genji's pupils constricted at hearing her say that. His breath caught a bit at the emotional pang he felt in his chest at knowing exactly what she was talking about.

Angela winced a bit at realizing what she said and her face paled a bit, "Sorry. I know we agreed that we wouldn't speak of that again—"

He frowned lightly behind his mask, "Angela, we agreed on that all the way back during Recall. That was two years ago and we still haven't spoken of it. I think we both know that conversation is long past due."

She closed her eyes and rubbed one of her eyelids with her pale wrist quietly, "But we're only talking about it now that we're being thrown back into the fight… this is why we ended things between us, because we cared too much and it was dangerous with us both constantly being in danger of dying. We didn't want to hurt each other like that… and that's how it should be now."

Genji stared at her for the longest time before finally glancing away somberly, "So… that already overdue conversation is getting pushed on the wayside again. We're pretending it never happened, again." They finally reached the elevators and Genji reached a hand up to extend his metallic index finger and press the down-arrow button, summoning the elevator up to their floor with a small ringing sound.

Angela's blue irises were getting brighter, the surfaces of her eyes glistening with wetness, "It's for the best, Genji, you said so yourself. And besides, it's obvious you had a deeper connection with Amelie than you ever did with me."

The doors to the elevator slid open to reveal the inside of it and Genji stepped inside, slowly turning on one heel to look back at her.

A lull in the conversation settled between them, leaving a solemn silence in the air.

At that point, the elevator door started to slide closed and Angela couldn't hold it in anymore. Covering her blue eyes with her hands she let out an almost inaudible sob when Genji's armored hand stopped the door from closing and then darted out to grasp her shoulder and tug her into the elevator with him. Angela's eyes went wide in surprise before she was met with her face against the soft, flexible armor of his chest plate, his arms wrapped around her.

She didn't know how to react at first until she heard the elevator door slide shut behind her and her arms slowly wrapped around his ribcage to hug him back as they stood there in silence.

"You put too much pressure on yourself… remember the first night we got together?" he asked.

Angela didn't reply as the question was rhetorical. They both remembered that night they shared because it was the only night they got to share together.

"The reason it even happened was because you opened yourself up. You stopped stressing about everyone around you and just thought about yourself even if it were only a moment that you did. And we both felt better about ourselves afterwards."

She nodded quietly in agreement, face hidden in his chest.

"You're right, now isn't the time to talk about what happened that night. But it has nothing to do with the current situation… it's because I don't think either of us are emotionally ready for that," he explained in a hushed tone, "We both need time to process our feelings before we do anything rash."

Angela frowned and looked up at him, tears still fresh and stinging at the corners of her eyes, "You just mean that I need time to process my feelings, don't you? Is this about your body's poor physical condition?"

Genji said nothing reply, knowing she could tell if were to lie anyways.

She gently pushed back from him and wiped the tears from her eyes, "I thought all that time you spent in Nepal changed your perspective on your new body?"

"It did… but I went there for personal acceptance of my new body, not social acceptance. And I was there with others that were robotic. Being in a relationship with someone that's fully human, I just don't see how it would work without me pointlessly bringing complications into their lives. Into your life."

Angrily, she turned and pressed the button for the bottom floor where they both would be getting off.

"You know, Genji. Someday you're going to realize that human emotions go a little deeper beyond the physical."

Genji's eyes widened a bit behind his visor and he looked down silently, knowing there really wasn't going to be a good reply to that. She was right.

The elevator door slid open slowly upon reaching the bottom floor after a long several seconds of silence and she looked back at him, nodding for him to get off first.

He kept his eyes on the floor, thinking of something, anything that could put her at ease after making her so infuriated.

Slowly but surely, he stepped out of the elevator first and he suddenly glanced back at her with a serious expression, even if she couldn't see it, "… To answer your question from earlier. Back at the base?" he started, making sure she knew what he was talking about.

Her eyebrows rose a bit, curiously, in response.

"Amelie and I didn't have an affair of any sort. Things between us are more complicated than you really need to know. But what you do need to know is that this interrogation is very personal to me. It's more important than you or Winston would understand."

"That only answers one of my questions, Genji… Why is she so important to you?"

Genji turned away from her again, his black eyebrows furrowing over top the light amber eyes beneath his helmet as he started to walk away.

…

"Because I'm the only reason she was alive to shoot Ana last night."

…

* * *

 **{A/N:} Oh man, was that dramatic-**

 **So tell me, did that answer any of your questions? Make you wonder up some new ones? I hope so! ;)**

 **With all these big reveals, what do you think will happen to the members of Overwatch in critical condition? What do you think will happen to Pharah or Overwatch as a whole?**

 **And even further, what exactly happened between Genji and Mercy or Genji and Widowmaker, all those years ago?**

 **Only one way to find out, read on and make sure to show me your support and/or criticism for the story or for my writing as a whole (be polite please!). :)**

 **Thanks a bunch, readers!**

 **-Nb**


	4. Chapter 4: The Enemy of My Enemy

**Hello again, readers!**

 **Jeez, it's been so long since I last updated, I'm so sorry! Ugh, school has been eating up all my time and energy this year.**

 **But I just wanted to assure you not to worry, for I have not lost inspiration for this story! In fact, I've recently come up with a bunch of new ideas I hope to dish out into content in the future of this story.**

 **I'm not quite sure yet how long I want it to be... but I know I want the story to be fast-paced with a sense of depth to it. Does that make any sense?**

 **I'm losing my train of thought here, so I'll just let you get to the story. XD**

 **~Nb**

Chapter 4: The Enemy of My Enemy  
(Is Not My Friend)

…

* * *

The room was dark, solemn. Quiet.

Lunar glow was the only light filtering in through the apartment's bedroom window, giving everything in the room a soft, light blue color to it. The coolness in the air only added to the pressing feeling of a lack of presence in the apartment other than the single, armored figure standing at the glass, staring out over the busy streets below.

In the city, even nights were no exception for vehicle traffic.

On the streets overlooked by the apartment, they were surely chaotic and full of angered, tired human beings but from Genji's point of view, it had a sort of peaceful serenity to it.

It had the presence of a soothing voice, giving Genji permission to finally close his eyes for more than a split second before having to open them again.

He could be at peace here. In his humble apartment home near the top of the towering apartment complex.

This was all due in part to Angela who helped him with everything from helping him gain citizenship at much less difficulty than most immigrants from outside America. Not to mention, gained him a job in Overwatch to help him pay for rent and much more, as well as provided him with a sort of air-cleansing life support system that would allow him to take his armor off and actually sleep like a normal person.

And even all of that paled in comparison to the fact that she gave him a new life. She saved him when he was broken and disowned by his brother and his entire clan as a whole. She gave him something to live for again, a new family, Angela practically was his everything at this point.

Genji's eyes slowly shut in remorse and he reached up to click the button under the jawline of his mask, the mask plate sliding up with the swift sound of rotating metal in his helmet. He then touched behind the base of his skull and pressed the button at the top of the spine support column built into the back of the suit, necessary for him to remain mobility. Some air released from his helmet in two sharp puffs of white gas before the helmet came off his head with the motions of his fingertips, the spherical hunk of armor falling into his palms upon leaving his skull.

He stared down at it, the slashes and scars on his light-colored complexion revealed along with the burning rings of amber that were his eyes, his lips drying upon making contact with the outside air but quickly moistening at the effect of the high tech air-cleanser at his bedside.

His eyes locked with the soulless visor of his helmet for the longest time before he shut them solemnly.

"…"

But he couldn't love Angela. He wouldn't put her through that. Even during a time of peace, tomorrow isn't guaranteed for anyone, especially for a man with a constant state of physical instability like Genji.

His cards in life were dealt for him and he ended up with a terrible hand to play. But he had to play it, even if he lost in the end of the game called 'living.'

It wasn't fair for him to let Angela bet all she had on Genji and expect a victory at the end. It wasn't fair, and furthermore it wasn't right. She deserved better than him, someone to be able to hold her hand and her be able to feel the equal smoothness and warmth of flesh caressing her own.

Not cold, dead metal encasing flesh that would probably die off if it made contact with her own.

He shook his head of that thought, knowing better than to belittle the gift that this suit was for him. The suit made him better, it helped him find tranquility in Nepal with Master Zenyatta. It was a blessing…

But it didn't change who he was around everyone else. A robot.

"A robot," he repeated to himself out loud as he started to remove each and every piece of his armor to reveal more and more of the scarred, beaten flesh beneath.

Genji hadn't been thrown back into the fight in two years. So why hadn't these wounds healed yet?

He finally looked up from the visor of his helmet into the eyes of the man that appeared in the window's reflection. The still warm, amber eyes that matched his own.

And upon seeing the man again that was once hidden behind his armor, the same man who would be hidden again when he awoke the next morning, he realized the reason his wounds remained, the reason he just wouldn't heal no matter what.

Because he hadn't let them go yet. Even after several years of reflection in the mountains of Nepal, scars and old wounds still marked his past.

Which meant the last step to Genji's life was letting go of his past and accepting the unpredictability of the future.

"That is why I am so passionate about this case, Angela…" he muttered his thoughts, as if Angela were in the room with him.

He turned back to his bed and set the helmet down on the end table where his lamp was.

"Because this may be my last chance at letting go of the past."

* * *

The rather quiet hallway of the Overwatch headquarters underground the city rang with the sounds of mechanical boots clicking against the sleek, clean floor as Genji quickly made his way to the Interrogation Room. His armor concealed every firm, straightened limb and muscle of his body, the determination in his expression, and most of all the renewed fire in his eyes to fight this ghost of the past that was coming back to haunt him

He was up early this morning, gathering his thoughts and preparing himself for the next mind game that Amelie was certain to play on him this morning.

The first round yesterday was his victory. It would be a cold day in Hell, if he was going to give her the second round today.

Genji looked up at a nearby analogue clock on the wall to read the time. 7:15, right on schedule. And as he expected, he heard an automated voice suddenly bellow through the speakers in the ceiling of the facility, "Genji Shimada, please report to Interrogation. Genji Shimada, to Interrogation."

Picking up the speed in his walk, he made his way to where he already knew his destination would be.

Or at least where it should have been, before Angela suddenly whipped out of her personal office in front of Genji to stop him, small, pale hand against his metal chest, "Genji. You need to see this. The bombing at the church is being addressed on the news right now."

Genji almost full-on ran into her but he was able to stop himself from walking in time, allowing her to remove her hand from his chest, "What? They're just now addressing it?"

She shook her head, "It's been all over the news, but the police is just now releasing what information they've found."

Genji's eyes almost bugged out of his skull at that, "Does anyone else know that Overwatch is involved?!"

Angela bit her lip uncertainly, "I can't say for sure, the government knows of Overwatch's involvement but the public is still just theorizing. For now, our benefactors are still denying any association."

"In other words, we have to rely on the hope that the world government doesn't stab us in the back because they think we are involved?"

She didn't reply at first, glancing away for a mere moment to gather her words before looking back up at him and nodding slowly, "To put it bluntly… yes."

Genji suddenly heard the news on the TV in Angela's office behind her. A loud, male voice announced in a firm tone, "We are now going to our live broadcast at the New York City courthouse with the press conference being held by Governor Emma Liu."

He and Angela only had to pass a glance at each other to know they were thinking the same thing and nodded, both heading into the room to watch the governor's address on the matter at hand.

The scene on the TV changed to a view of the press conference, Governor Liu at the front of the room, dressed in a navy blue suit jacket, white button up underneath and a simple, matching skirt that ended below her knee. Her make-up was done on thick today, unlike how she usually looked at press conferences, likely trying to hide bags under her eyes from two sleepless nights of preparing for this press conference covering the apparent terrorist attack by Widowmaker.

But considering nobody outside of those directly related to the Overwatch program knew that the Widowmaker was behind the terrorist attack, Genji couldn't help but wonder what this press conference was supposed to be for.

Cameras flashed throughout the room, Governor Liu being guarded by several large, black-suited men with sunglasses. The Governor held a stoic look on her face as she cleared her throat and began her short address into the mic, "Thank you all for coming today. I have gathered this press conference in light of the recent terrorist attack at the Church of Saint Morrow on 5th Avenue…" she paused.

Genji watched closely, his arms crossed and his eyes narrow as he stared at the screen.

The governor gave a distressed sigh, "Unfortunately, we have no leads as to who the culprit behind the bombing could possibly be, as there was no trace of the terrorist left behind at the crime scene. At this point, we can only assume that the terrorist behind this violent attack was taken in the blast just like all of their victims, and being closest to the blast may have just rendered their body impossible to identify. So until further evidence is brought forth, the most likely cause behind this horrible tragedy was a suicide bombing in protest."

That was a lie.

"And once you take into consideration that many of the victims that were taken by the blast were Omnic, when in fact there is a rift between humans and Omnics alike going on worldwide, it seems very likely that the root cause of this protest bombing derived from an unknown Anti-Omnic Extremist."

… A good lie.

"With this possibility matching up with all the evidence at the crime scene, I think it's safe for everyone to rest easy and know these are not the acts of a malevolent terrorist group. This was a tragedy that took many innocent lives that we will act to ensure never happens again," she looked down with remorse, "And my sympathies go out to the families of every victim taken in the bombing. A ceremony has already been planned to honor the victims of the tragedy at the city hall."

She looked back up again.

"Now I will answer any questions you may have."

Instantly, a hand shot up in the crowd, "Governor Liu! Rumors are spiraling around that the bombing was related to the disbanded Overwatch group many years ago. Can you shed some light on that?"

The Governor frowned a bit, "There is no proof or evidence that it has any correlation with the Overwatch program; the program was shut down years ago and there are no existing threats regarding Overwatch."

Genji's eyes narrowed at noticing a knot shifting down the older woman's throat, reaching down to take a glass of water she had on the flat top of her podium and sipped from it to wash it down.

She showed no signs of dishonesty to an untrained eye but from the view of someone who knew she was lying, she was being a bit too obvious for comfort. It was evident that she was not used to lying to the public's face, honesty is what got her to her position as governor. Or at least that's what he had heard.

Angela let out a short sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. It seems the government is still on our side, on this one."

He glanced at her and then back up at the screen, "Maybe so. But the public is not on our side with all these conspiracies hovering around. Watch closely… here come all the questions."

Another hand shot up and the young woman to whom the arm belonged to immediately added on, "Actually, ma'am, there is in fact written record of a wedding taking place at the church the night of the bombing, and according to the names on guest list, there _were_ ex-Overwatch agents present at Saint Morrow's when the bombing took place. With that being factual evidence, do you have any comments addressing that?"

And with that being stated, yet another question broke out and then another, "Is the government funding to rebuild the Overwatch program?"

Governor Liu shook her head sternly, "No."

"Were the ex-Overwatch agents targets of the attack on Saint Morrow's?"

"No, there isn't enough evidence to support that," Governor Liu denied again.

"Are you denying evidence of the investigation?!"

Immediately, a flurry of questions and arguing sparked among the crowd of press reporters and the governor took a deep breath and took a long drink of her water, leaning forward to announce one last time, "I will state one last time on this ridiculous conspiracy of Overwatch's return, of any sort… Overwatch has _nothing_ to do with—"

She was cut off when her voice suddenly caught in her throat and her eyes rolled back in her skull, slumping backwards until she collapsed onto the floor behind the podium unconscious.

Gasps erupted across the room and everyone in the audience of press stood up, effectively blocking the camera's view of the down governor.

Angela's pupils visibly shrunk at watching the governor fall and Genji was equally shocked, his arms instantly uncrossing and stepping forward as if he were actually there, trying to get a closer look.

"My God…" she whispered.

The screen became fuzzy and gray before suddenly flickering to a screen of a black room, the camera zoomed in on an unidentifiable figure standing alone with nothing in the background behind them. Just an ominous darkness.

"Hello, attentive viewers. Whether you were watching your broadcasted program via television or internet, you will have witnessed the death of Governor Liu live mere seconds ago. Your regularly scheduled program shall continue uninterrupted after this very… very important announcement," the figure spoke in an echoing, droning voice.

Angela turned around, fear and uncertainty in her eyes as she stared out the door of her office, "The audio of the broadcast is playing on the speakers outside!"

Genji turned tail and ran out into the hallway to look up at the ceiling speakers that stretched down the length of the hall each about five yards away from one another.

Sure enough, the audio from the broadcast was being transmitted throughout the entire Overwatch base and sent a rather unsettling rumble echoing through the underground building:

"All the information your world government is feeding you with is lies. In times like these, the government can't trust anyone with what they know. And in turn, you simply cannot trust them either."

He turned back to the TV screen in the other room where Angela was still watching attentively.

"But that's just fine. You all know who you can or cannot trust… that's not what I've interrupted your scheduled program for," they leaned forward visibly, but not enough to identify any distinguishing features on their face or body, "I'm here to expose a secret the government has kept from you for two, long years."

Suddenly, the screen flickered again to a photo taken from a rather high altitude angle, the picture clearly showing Genji clad in his armor turned toward the burning, post-explosion rubble of the church two nights ago from atop a nearby building's rooftop. Widowmaker was not even present in the photo which made the picture look even more controversial.

Just seeing the photo drained whatever color either Angela or Genji had left in their faces.

"This is an Overwatch agent, present on the night of the explosion," the droning voice deadpanned.

A deathly silence settled over the entire Overwatch base.

"Many of you may doubt my accusation, some may even doubt the picture I show you now. Whether or not that's the case, allow me to incriminate the Overwatch agent in this photo," the picture flickered to another picture taken of Genji's classified Overwatch file.

Genji's hand covered the metal plate over his mouth in disbelief, "No… that's not possible. There's no way."

All of Genji's classified information. Displayed live for the entire world to see.

"This agent's name is Genji Shimada. He is part of the revived Overwatch team that was denied by the government and thought only to be a conspiracy. But as you can see, this is no longer just some conspiracy. This threat is real," the screen flickered back to the dark figure, "The rumors are true, the bombing at the church in New York two nights ago was a secret, coordinated attack by Overwatch to give you all a reason to want them back. To create a fake enemy that you will think only Overwatch will be able to fight back. To give you all a reason to believe their lies and let them break the fragile laws you all stand on so shakily."

Angela shook her head, "That's not true! They can't actually believe that you had anything to do with the bombing, can they? Overwatch was made to fight for the law and for justice to begin with!"

"Maybe they don't…" Genji walked over to pull up a nearby chair and sit down so he could steady himself, "… Maybe they're using this information and blowing it up into something bigger. Using lies to cause distrust, anarchy. Or worse."

"People of the world, you're walking on thin ice that your authorities claim, _boldly_ , is safe. How long will you continue to walk atop this foundation of secrets and lies before the ice cracks?" they leaned forward and grabbed the camera aggressively, causing it to shake and drawing it so close to their face that a pure-white skull mask was immediately visible, the camera shaking violently in their grasp, "No. That's not a graphic enough question to affect you. So how about this one?"

The silence settled again, Angela putting a hand over her mouth and Genji's eyebrows turned down underneath his helmet.

A gasp escaped her throat first, "No, he's been killed two times now. There's no way he's just back again."

"Gabriel Reyes. Reaper," Genji barked out.

"Even when the ice cracks beneath your feet, people of the world… Even when the lies you call law and order crumble beneath your feet and shatter. How many of you are going to keep walking like nothing is wrong?"

Genji could feel a cold shiver run up his spine at the figure's words. If such a simple question even drew a reaction like that out of Genji, he could only imagine how it would affect half the world watching this too.

"Before the government disrupts this broadcast to keep me from revealing too much… I prompt you to rise up. Ask your authorities the bigger questions. Let me guarantee ahead of time, they'll deny everything you ask them. Because they're all damnable cowards!" the unknown figure reached past the camera, audibly starting to type something down behind the camera, "So just for those who aren't quite on board yet, look at these photos! Burn them into your memory and know those who have betrayed your trust, the ones who are conspiring against you to earn your commitment before they can wrap their cold fingers around you in an iron fist, inescapable upon the moment you realize you're being controlled!"

They looked into the camera with eyes burning like hot coals, "Remember the villains named: Overwatch."

The broadcast cut at that final statement, the screen switching to a slideshow of different photographs taken of every classified file of every Overwatch agent that was recruited two years ago. All of their codenames were labeled at the tops of the files in bold, red letters.

Ana. Tracer. Lucio. Winston. Mercy. Reinhardt. Torbjorn. McCree. And the names went on from there further…

Angela shook her head in disbelief, "This can't be happening. It's all just one big, terrible nightmare."

Genji looked around desperately, growling out in anger, "They need to cut it off before he can expose anyone else! Who knows what other classified information he might have at his disposal?!"

The screen started to flicker and distort before breaking to gray static on the television. And more than likely that was what everyone viewing the broadcast was seeing right now too.

It was a small comfort however. Everything was just revealed to the public. Every private record, every classified file that the Overwatch program had on its field agents. All of it now public information.

"It's over… The government will shut us down, for sure. The people's trust is too important for them to keep us around at this rate," she sat down at her desk drearily, "We're done for, aren't we? Gabriel played us on this one…" she buried her face in her palms.

Genji stared at the floor, his chest burning with rage as the dragon within him would not let him lose this battle without a fight, "He hasn't played us yet. We still have a chance."

"Genji, we can't—"

"No! Listen, don't you think all of this just seems a bit too coincidental? In fact, it's so coincidental that it's convenient for us."

Angela listened with a skeptical expression.

Genji held up his index finger to emphasize his point, "First, the attack at the church happens, obviously targeted at us, Overwatch, the only ones capable of identifying the terrorist group that we've disbanded multiple times now, Talon. Second, we find out that said attacker is in fact an ex-Talon agent who practically let herself fall into our custody. Then third, she _denies_ any accusation we make of her possibly just being a decoy controlled by someone with power. Influence. Up until the Governor of New York was murdered on live broadcast and Reyes revealed himself in his own broadcast. All of it, I think, ties together in the most subtle way…"

A glare slipped across his expression as he glanced out the door of the office, "… Like a web of lies."

The Swiss doctor's eyes widened at what he was insinuating, "You think Widowmaker knows something?"

"I'd bet my life on it," Genji immediately replied, "And I'd also bet that she's going to be a lot more cooperative with our interrogation now that Reyes' broadcast hijacked every speaker in the base. She's involved in all of this somehow and I'm getting to the bottom of it."

Angela smiled timidly, "Genji… what if nothing changes? What if this _is_ all some big coincidence? Then again, what if it isn't. What will it change? Overwatch's very existence is in danger now. Don't bet your life, don't bet anything on a cause that is lost, it's just going to make things worse for you in the end."

He shook his head in response, "You wouldn't understand, some things are worth betting on, no matter the conclusion."

"Genji!" she exclaimed defiantly, stepping closer and reaching a hand up to touch him before his hand gently caught her wrist. Her eyes widened a bit in confusion.

"Don't," he droned out quietly.

"Doctor Ziegler, if things take a turn for the worse," his eyes trailed down to the floor, "Go back to wherever you consider your home to be and don't look back. If everything goes to hell because of this, I don't want you caught in the political crossfire."

She frowned, looking down at her clenched fist held in his grasp before finally her wrist loosened and he allowed her to simply hold it there in front of him, "This is my home, Genji. Overwatch is my home. That's what _you_ don't understand…" she whispered.

Genji didn't reply for a long moment, as if pondering his words.

Her eyes stayed locked on his face, waiting for something. A witty comeback, a disregarding remark. Anything to ruin their seemingly fragile friendship, at this point.

"Then I am sorry… from the bottom of my human heart for whatever may happen next."

With that, he let go of her wrist and turned on one heel to head to Solitary Confinement, where Angela knew he'd be going. She looked down and slowly reached up to cover her face with her palms, breathing out between her slender fingers at knowing the days to come would just become more and more difficult.

Especially with the possibility of Overwatch being disbanded before they could even face this new threat.

* * *

Amelie lie on her back within the white, lonesome room of her cell, cuffed wrists crossed behind her head and hands cupping the base of her skull to prop her head up comfortably, her feet propped up on the wall. She hummed an old tune to herself and watched her toes curl and twist to the rhythm she whistled out.

Her tune only stopped at the sound of the door sliding open and then immediately snapping shut again, her wrists slipping out from under her head so she could glance back at whoever just entered her cell from her upside-down view.

Genji stood over top of her, arms crossed sternly, "Ready to start talking?"

Amelie smirked amusedly, "About what?"

He growled in response, "I have little patience for your games today, Miss Lacroix, you know what I'm talking about."

She curled her legs up into herself acrobatically and rolled back onto her feet to hop up into standing position, twisting around to look up at him, "What is there to speak of, dear? You heard the rather strange terrorist, did you not? I can't tell you anymore than what he said."

"I know that the terrorist is Reyes, Amelie, I told you to knock off the mind games."

"Reyes? Gabriel? What makes you think it's him?" she asked with a quirked brow.

Genji stared her down with an emotionless gaze behind the glowing visor that hid his golden irises, "Toward the end of the broadcast, he revealed his mask. It was identical to the one that Reyes used as Reaper when he attempted to harness the power of the Doom Fist two years ago."

The Widowmaker gave an amused chortle, "Gabriel is dead."

"Wouldn't be the first time he's been dead. What's to stop him from coming back a second time, we still don't know how he came back the _first_ time."

Amelie tilted her head a bit and gave a pouty look, one a mother would give to an ignorant child, "You poor thing. Well, I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I'm afraid even if Gabriel did come back, that simply wasn't him that hijacked your base."

Genji's arms instantly uncrossed and he pointed a finger in her face, "Do not speak to me as if I am a fool! I know you're hiding something!"

She stepped closer, causing Genji to withdraw his finger as he was uncertain of what she might attempt to do.

Within a fraction of a second, their faces were mere inches apart and Amelie blew her hot breath against the flawless steel of Genji's mask, "Mmm, you know you're my favorite cyborg, don't you?"

In a flash, Genji's hand was wrapped tight around Amelie's slim neck and hoisting her off her feet to slam her back against the wall, causing her feet to kick at the air limply as he pressed her back against the wall by her throat, pressing his palm in to choke her harder with each passing second, "The lives of the people I love may be in danger. And as much as I want to be civil with you, as much as I want to save you from whomever has brainwashed you from who you once were… I will not stand idly by while you pointlessly stall for time that neither of us have right now."

Amelie gasped for air, wincing at the pressure on her throat. But despite the uncomfortable position that Genji had her in, it didn't keep her from shooting him a sly simper, "I can only—" she coughed, "—answer your question, if you ask me something I know…"

He glared angrily, "Fine. Do you know who the terrorist broadcaster is, if it's not Gabriel Reyes?"

She let out a choked laugh, "I don't know who they are personally, no. But I've met them once," she coughed again, but Genji's grip was loosening so she was at least able to receive some air into her lungs.

"Where are they, and how can I find them?" Genji deadpanned.

At that, Amelie peered down at him, her chin pressing into one of his metallic knuckles as she replied, "Why don't you start by checking who has been within your own numbers?"

Genji's eyes widened a bit in response, his hand finally releasing from her neck so she could fall back to her feet, and then from her feet to her knees, coughing and sputtering as she caught her breath.

"A double-agent in Overwatch? It seems unlikely, but… I guess anything is possible," he stated in a monotone.

Amelie chuckled dryly because of her now rather sore throat, "You really know how to treat a lady, you know that?"

He looked down at her and replied in a stern tone, "If I find out this is just another one of your games, Amelie, I will be back. You understand that, yes?"

She smirked playfully and sat back so her shoulder blades pressed against the firm surface of the wall behind her, her hand touching her own throat to ease the pain of her throat away, "You'll be back. Not for that, but you'll be back. We both know that, Shimada."

Genji turned to walk back to the cell door with a stride in his step, as he now had a new goal in mind to accomplish before the government could even think about shutting down Overwatch.

"Genji." Amelie suddenly stated aloud.

His fingers were centimeters away from touching against the hand scanner that was required to open the door from this side of her cell when he stopped and glanced back at her without a response.

There was no smirk playing her lips. No challenging glimmer in her yellow irises. Just a blank, emotionless glance, staring up at him through the tension that suddenly settled between them, "You keep reminding me of how much I've changed from how you remember me. But if you take a long look in the mirror at yourself… You won't find the man I once knew either."

Genji looked back down at the hand scanner silently.

"You've changed, Genji. But why have you changed?"

Again, no response.

Amelie blinked quietly, her long eyelashes fanning against one another before merely asking, "It was the Omnic, wasn't it?"

Genji's gaze shot back at her again, confirming her suspicions.

With a light, disappointed chuckle, she muttered, "You really are just a robot."

He stepped back from the scanner suddenly, his fingers lifting from the pad as his vision started to blur and fade into a whirl of images, "Ngh…" he mumbled as his world shifted and spun around him, his hand instinctively reaching up to hold his head as if that would steady the oncoming dizziness.

" _You really are just a robot_." Her words rang through his skull in an unprecedented way, over and over again.

Amelie stared on with an ominous lack of surprise in her expression as Genji turned around and slumped to his knees before falling flat on his face, the blurring images fading into each other before his eyelids shifted towards one another into thin slits.

Until all he could see, all he could feel was a veil of cold darkness.

" _You really are just a robot."_

* * *

Amelie held Genji's head in her lap, his helmet removed and set aside as she ran her fingers through his thick, black locks of hair.

She continued to hum her tune from earlier as Genji slept in his unconscious state.

He had been there for at least an hour now, which meant that somebody would soon be sent down to Solitary Confinement to retrieve him from his absence. They would take him away from her. They may even attack her upon finding him unconscious in her lap.

But that didn't matter. When he was sleeping, Amelie could still see a twinge of humanity left in his face… a glimmer of hope that he hadn't changed like she had.

"There's still hope for you yet, Genji. You'll learn to be human again someday…" she sighed nonchalantly, "… I wish I could say I feel envious that you have that chance. But I would be lying."

Amelie looked up at hearing the sound of the door to her cell unlocking with a loud buzz in the computer system of the door. Her fingers ran down Genji's cheek affectionately as she spoke to him in his sleep.

"I can't feel anything at all."

…

* * *

 **Well, I tried to give a light-hearted ending to this chapter, but I'm not sure if that's what you would classify as "light-hearted."**

 **But that's okay, I plan to have some more fluffy moments between the main cast soon enough. :)**

 **So, in the spirit of trying new things, I've decided to take a suggestion from one of my guest reviewers: I'm going to reply to my guest reviews!**

 **Kitty-toes: Thanks for the suggestion to reply to my guest reviews too, I definitely appreciate the suggestion! Also, your review sort of correlated with the idea I had for this chapter, with the mention of a media reaction and what-not, which is pretty neat! *gives a thumbs up* Thanks for you continued support btw, it's appreciated more than you know. Hope the world of this story seems a little less narrow now!**

 **timtbow: Thank you for your consistent reviews, I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! ^^**

 **And to all the unnamed guests: I appreciate all of you taking time out of your day to review, and I hope you continue to read and enjoy what I write!**

 **That should be it for now, readers, lots of thanks for reading. See you next time (hopefully next time will be much sooner than this one)!**

 **~Nb**


	5. Chapter 5: The Devil's Advocate

**{A/N}: Hey again, everyone! I actually got this out before my deadline I set for myself, so I'm pretty proud of myself this time around.**

 **I don't have too much to say this time around aside from my gratitude for all the feedback, support, and follows/favorites I'm getting as I post each chapter. Thanks, guys!**

 **-Nb**

* * *

...

Chapter 5: The Devil's Advocate

…

 _Darkness clouded my vision in a claustrophobic, suffocating way. It seemed no matter where I looked, endless rows of black, swirling clouds were the only objects my eyes could meet with._

 _Voices erupted in the black, but they sounded like the ghostly tones of the deepest part of a cave, whilst I looked on from the entrance— impossible to understand and even more so to recognize the people that the voices belonged to._

 _To my dismay, the voices became quieter and quieter until I heard nothing at all._

 _But the solemn silence was short lived as I found myself in the foggy back alley of a run-down city. Every sound, every stench, every light breeze graced my senses the way they did when I didn't have my self-sustaining armor on._

 _I looked around in a puzzled fashion at my surroundings, all the objects in the alley with me appearing a distorted sort of tunnel vision._

 _And that's when I realized how alarming the sounds around me were: the police sirens echoing through the sky behind me, the chopping sounds of helicopter blades as ambulance and news choppers raced across the sky above the nearby docks stretching out a short ways above the dark, nightly waters of the ocean. The full moon spanned across the sky despite the overpowering lights of the city over the horizon._

 _But no light was nearly as overpowering as the orange glow that crept over the walls of every building around me, the smell of ash and blaze filling my nostrils and I knew what was going on around me._

 _An explosion._

 _I couldn't tell what it was, but something inside me just knew that this wasn't the bombing at St. Morrow's not long ago. This was another attack entirely. A devastating result of a war. Almost like this was a distant memory, not of my own._

 _Soon enough, my tunnel vision intensified to the point that all the sounds around me blended together into a dull hum, the sounds of a child sobbing hysterically drawing my attention to the single object that appeared clear from my perspective._

 _But upon further observation, I made out no object. It was a person… two persons._

 _One was a child, holding the incinerated body of his mother, only identifiable by the barely intact face that remained on her charred, burnt corpse. She was dead. I could feel a slight certainty of that, but the feeling that overwhelmed me the most was the crippling feeling of hopelessness and loss._

 _Not just the loss you feel when a loved one has passed on. But the loss of will, the loss of drive, and the loss of empathy._

 _As the boys sobbed died down to a quiet hum of whimpering noises, he looked up slowly as two large, orange colored Omnics with cyclops-esque crimson eyes marched down the alleyway with machine guns at the ready, mutters of cybernetic code escaping their processors as they approached the human boy._

 _The light around me turned an ominous shade of red and the boy straightened up from where he was knelt by his deceased mother and he screamed at the robotic bastions at the top of his lungs, all the hate and despair in his heart finally letting itself out in the form of his voice._

 _But his screaming voice became a figment of imagination as every object in the scene, every light in the city blurred slowly into nonexistence._

 _In the place of the crying boy stood a familiar dark figure with no face, no identity. An emotionless husk faced away from me with a feeling of emptiness radiating from him. And standing across from the figure was none other than Gabriel Reyes himself. The Reaper._

 _But they were standing vastly apart from one another, as if standing on different sides of an abyss diverging between them. And yet they spoke to each other in hushed whispers._

" _You're a disgrace to wear my mask… to raise my flag and bare my cause as if doing me a favor," Gabriel droned out in his echoing tone._

 _The unknown man looked up, his face covered by the mask of the Reaper, "I'm doing you no favors, old man. You were so ignorant to let Overwatch kill you again. Your pride and lust for death which gave you drive is what became your ultimate downfall, in the end."_

" _The grave cannot hold me, kid."_

 _The younger of the two dark figures turned away from him and glared daggers into the ground, "Then when you drag your sad, sorry carcass out of the mud and dirt I stand upon… Come and claim your mask. I've already done more damage in a single night than you did in years. And I look forward to you joining my list of Overwatch casualties."_

 _Gabriel did not move an inch, staring into the back of the younger male's skull with blood red eyes holding the wrath of death itself, "You underestimate me. And worse yet, you underestimate the abilities of the old Overwatch team. One of us will find you eventually, and we will kill you."_

 _The young man let out a deep, raspy chuckle, "The old Overwatch team? I'd be offended if you didn't at least try."_

 _Gabriel's figure slowly faded into the shape of an old, broken tombstone and the young man walked away from it with slow, hard steps into the muck beneath his feet, rain suddenly starting to pour down over him and the grave of Gabriel Reyes._

" _Out with the old… In with the new."_

 _The mysterious male suddenly turned toward me with a gaze of sudden alertness. Piercing, blood-red eyes shot daggers into my own and seeming to study every piece of me. In a split second, it felt as if all my memories, every remnant of my soul was torn from me and fed into the eyes of a monster. Of something no longer human._

* * *

Genji's golden-yellow eyes shot open without even a jerk or subtle movement of any muscle in his body. He would not move until he was able to discern that this was reality and not the strange out-of-body experience he just had within his comatose state.

Voices were audible across the room that rang into Genji's ears through the metal plating of his helmet that had apparently been put back on his head. Most likely to re-stabilize his vital functions for living.

"So this truly isn't the first time something like this has happened to Genji?" asked a rather puzzled Winston, readjusting his glasses as he spoke with Doctor Ziegler, the Swiss blonde having her arms crossed and nodding in response.

"Far from the first time… The prototype suit he had on initially to keep him alive was less than capable in stabilizing his vital organs. The types of nanobots in the original suit caused a hormonal imbalance to release in his bloodstream and as soon as the hormones hit his brain, he would overload and go into a short coma until someone deactivated his suit and let the hormones run their course," she explained.

Genji remembered the comas that Angela mentioned more vividly than anyone. They were always random, nearly lethal, and impossible to predict without someone checking on his vital signs at all times, which obviously wasn't an option.

Winston seemed taken aback by this information, "I'm sorry, but did you say _coma_? That's not some child's play side-effect, Doctor Ziegler, how come I've never seen him have one of these comas in the time that I've worked with him?!"

Angela feigned a smile at the question, "The… first suit he was being stabilized with was not one of our creation. The one originally used was unstable and incomplete. Once he was added to our numbers, I worked tirelessly to make a suit that would stabilize him without the unnecessary side effects."

"Then why is it happening again, Doctor Ziegler?" Genji asked quietly, allowing them to know that he was awake again.

Both of his friends in the room immediately looked in his direction with faces full of surprise and they immediately made their way over to his bedside. Genji still wasn't conscious enough to make out where they were at but he was able to recognize who they were and what they were saying. Everything else still appeared rather fuzzy.

"Genji! Thank goodness you're awake… I was beginning to worry this may be a longer coma than the others. Another side effect from your old suit," she breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Is that what this is, Doctor? A side effect after so long without the prototype on? That seems very unlikely to me," Genji replied with a doubtful tone, straining a bit to sit up as most of his limbs still felt numb from sitting stagnant on a bed for who knew how long.

Angela pressed a hand to his back to steady him as he sat up, "Easy now… I know it seems unlikely, I thought the same as you. But you have to consider just how unstable that suit was that you had on. It basically pumped untested nanobots into your bloodstream in a desperate effort to regenerate the cells in your vital organs. If some of those nanobots remained trapped in your body in a dormant state, they could have reawakened at a false detection of something going wrong in your body and went straight for your nervous system, triggering another hormonal imbalance. Hence your collapse."

Genji stared at her for a moment before shaking his head lightly and shutting his eyes behind his glowing, green visor. That was way too much information for him to take in.

Winston let out a chortle of amusement and elaborated, "What she's trying to say is… it was a one-time occurrence of a long term side-effect. You're going to be fine."

At Winston's words, Genji's eyes opened again and he remembered the vision he had before waking up, "Doctor Ziegler. I had a sort of out-of-body experience while in my unconscious state… It was not a mere dream or illusion, it was a real event that took place. From what it seemed, it was a vision of something that happened during the Omnic Crisis, an explosion of some sort. Everyone was… screaming and there were helicopters racing across the sky. Something big obviously happened there."

Angela and Winston simultaneously became very quiet.

"A lot of explosions happened during the Omnic Crisis, Genji," Angela finally replied, in a quiet, consoling tone, "It really could have been nothing at all. A hallucination that you were involved, maybe in a video clip you once saw of something that happened during the Omnic Crisis. It could be a vast number of things. It might be better just to not think on it too much."

"I don't know," he retorted, "Something about this; it felt important. It felt close to me, almost nearby. Like I was sharing thoughts with someone next to me."

Angela was left speechless by Genji's explanation, not even really sure herself of how to give a fitting diagnosis for that. She didn't remember any sort of nanobot technology causing hallucinations like he described. It didn't make any sense.

Winston was even a bit bothered by what Genji said, glancing around the room quietly as if wondering if they were actually alone or not.

Finally, the doctor smiled thoughtfully and pressed a hand against Genji's shoulder, "I'm not sure where the hallucinations are coming from, but I mean it when I say you shouldn't pay too much thought to them. Your brain is still recovering and the hallucinations may continue even now that you've woken back up," she explained. "You should rest."

Genji didn't reply to that, merely gazing around him in confusion, "How long was I out for?"

That was when Winston rejoined the conversation, "Not long actually. We found you in the Widowmaker's cell no more than a few hours ago!"

Realization struck Genji at that moment and he looked up at them, "Amelie. I was with her the moment I blacked out."

Angela tilted her head a bit in confusion, "Yes, that's true… Do you think she knows something about you passing out so suddenly?"

Genji hopped off the bed he was laying on and grabbed the nearby wall to steady himself from the imminent light-headedness that set in, "Ngh," he grunted out. "Doesn't matter. I need to start getting to work again on her interrogation. She's been held in custody for several days now with only one interrogation session. If we continue to work like this, she won't—"

"Genji, slow down!" Angela exclaimed, holding his shoulder to steady him, once again, "You keep going nonstop like this and you're going to hurt yourself. Then what good will you be doing for the others?"

"I need to get back to the base," he muttered.

Winston frowned, "You're still at the base, Genji…" he replied, "you never left."

The cyborg looked up at Winston in an almost dumbfounded fashion before looking at Angela and shaking his head, "Medbay. We're in the medbay. That's not far from the holding cells. I can walk there."

"Genji, please—"

"No. I'll be fine, Doctor Ziegler. Just let me work, please. I strongly insist," Genji interjected. There obviously wasn't going to be any convincing him otherwise.

The doctor looked down and let out a tired sigh, "Very well… just take care of yourself, please? For me?"

He nodded in agreement.

"Good…" she glanced away from him towards Winston, "Public backlash is at an all-time high since the televised broadcast by Gabri—" she stopped herself, "by Reaper. So Winston and I are going to the hospital to check out our friends and have them moved back to the base, here, for the extent of their recovery. We just can't take any chances of another Widowmaker showing up."

Whether the televised broadcast was really the Reaper back from the dead or not, it didn't matter currently. Angela was right, what mattered was that the entire Overwatch team was now in danger by this public backlash and they needed to be somewhere hidden. Somewhere safe.

And for now, the only place that would be was the only safe house they had left, in the underground Overwatch base of New York City.

Genji nodded in understanding and made his way to the door upon finally recovering from his light-headedness, "Then you both best take care of yourselves as well. Be careful."

The Swiss doctor gave a nod in return and smiled, "We'll be fine, don't worry too much about it. You do what you need to do, and we'll do what we need to do."

The Japanese man stared at her for the longest time before reaching up and pressing the automatic button to the door with his metal palm, a loud buzz ringing from the top of the door before it unlocked and slid open for him to take his leave.

Winston slowly made his way over to Angela from his side of the room, his knuckles pressing against the floor beneath him and his feet kicking off the cold surface with small hops as he went, "You know, doctor, with everything that's unfolding as of late… another Widowmaker may be the least of our worries."

Angela looked down and her eyes shut ever so slowly, "I know, Winston. But we can only tackle one world-changing problem at a time with only three of us on duty."

The consoling gorilla placed a massive hand on her shoulder in a gentle way, "Then let's go take care of the others so we can all get back to work," he smiled.

She returned the gesture and nodded, "To the hospital, then."

* * *

Amelie sat in Interrogation once again, chained up and held down to her metal chair in a rather familiar fashion. She knew what was coming. All she could do now was shut her eyes and mentally prepare herself for yet another mind game she could play on Genji.

Anything to wrap him around her little finger.

The only question that came to her regarding her only mission now, was _why_ she was doing it. Was she doing it for herself? Or the rather secretive organization of Talon that still had not contacted her since Reaper's untimely demise two years ago? Or was it for someone else.

How unlikely that seemed, however, for the heartless spider embodied in human flesh. Embodied in the form of this cold temptress.

The only door to the room slid open with a loud click and in walked Genji, his visor glowing intensely in the dim lighting of the room, his white, flawless armor glistening in the digital light that illuminated the room from the electrically-enhanced binds that kept the Widowmaker in place.

With a sly smirk, Amelie greeted in the usual seductive tone of her voice, "Hello again, Genji."

Genji's eyes narrowed beneath the mask that thoroughly hid his expression. The perfect challenge for the mind games Amelie had in store.

A sadistic gleam in her yellow eyes and an all-knowing shadow in the line of her lips, she asked in a whisper, "I'm sure you have many things to ask about. Many things that you could use some clarification about. So I invite you to ask me, my dear Genji. Please…" a grin crossed her unreadable expression, "… Try not to bore me."

* * *

The door let out a light banging sound as it shut tight on the ambulance truck, loaded up with a stretcher holding the injured Jesse McCree, put to sleep with anesthetics.

"He's locked and loaded!" One of the hospital workers exclaimed to the truck driver, patting the door to signal that Jesse was ready to be shipped off once the others were loaded up in their individual trucks.

The ambulance trucks were parked in a curved line in front of the urban hospital, taking up a good portion of the parking lot closest to the building. Angela and Winston stood outside not far from the ambulance trucks, beneath the metal oning of a small bus stop shelter, Reinhardt and Torbjorn standing with them as it was raining outside and the old friends were waiting for Ana to be loaded up onto a truck before they would join the others.

"Thank you for looking out for us, you two. I am certain Ana and the others will be much safer back at the base than out in the public, ever since Gabriel's broadcast," Reinhardt muttered in a dreary tone, but even when he used a quiet voice he still sounded as boisterous as ever.

"And the death of the New York governor! God bless her poor soul…" Torbjorn added. The both of them would have been among the few members least effected by the classified files being revealed. Their identities were already pretty public by now, but their involvement with Overwatch was enough to endanger them, hence why they were joining the others back to the base.

Besides, it wouldn't be very likely to try to get Reinhardt to separate from his newlywed wife throughout her recovery.

Angela nodded sadly in agreement, her hair soaked and pasted against the sides of her face in the messy bun that she had put it in from the rain, "Yes, all of this is very untimely and events are unfolding faster than we can react to them. So the safest place for us all right now until this all blows over is back at the base. I'm sorry for the stress we're probably causing you both…"

"Say nothing more," Reinhardt bellowed out, "You and Winston have been working tirelessly to ensure the safety and survival of the team during this dark time we face. A meager change in position is the least of our worries."

Winston smiled at Reinhardt's words, "Thank you both for being so understanding. I am certain as long as we stay out of the public eye and keep suspicion off our backs then we will be back to business very soon. And we'll catch the culprit behind all of this."

Torbjorn frowned, causing the hairs of his long beard-mustache to furrow around his lips, "Speaking of that, does anyone actually know _how_ he got into our super private cache? I'm quite curious."

Winston let out a small sigh of defeat at that.

"We're working on that. Theoretically, it should be impossible for anyone outside of Overwatch to even know about the files on record. So our only safe assumption is that someone within Overwatch is feeding information to an outside source," Angela answered for him.

"Let's just hope this isn't another Talon incident. We've put those bastards out of commission for times than I care to count," Reinhardt growled.

Angela gave a nervous chuckle, "Let's not jump to any conclusions, Reinhardt. I'd prefer not to think that we somehow failed to defeat Talon yet again…"

"Hey! You guys joining us or staying?" a driver shouted from one of the ambulance trucks, chewing a piece of gum rather obnoxiously.

Winston fixed his glasses on the bridge of his short, gray nose and glanced back at the trucks with a raised brow, "Well, it would seem that everyone is loaded up and ready to go. Angela and I are going to stay and grab the paperwork for all of the patients we had taken care of here, and then we will meet you back at the base."

Torbjorn nodded and turned on one thick-booted heel to head over to where the trucks were parked, "Alright, Reinhardt, get your oversized arse over here so we can find Ana's truck!" he was already halfway to the trucks.

Reinhardt let out a hearty laugh, "With those short, stumpy legs of yours, I'd better give you a head-start anyways!" He ignored the angry grumbling of Torbjorn that followed his comeback and he nodded to Winston and Angela, "Don't take too long now, lest you make us worry! See you both soon."

Angela and Winston exchanged smiles with the older man before they parted ways so Reinhardt could catch up to Torbjorn at the line of trucks waiting for them.

The two scientists watched and waited as the trucks take off in a single-file order out of the parking lot to make sure everyone got sent off alright. Once the many ambulance trucks got to the street, Winston turned toward the hospital building.

"Shall we take care of business so we can get back with the rest of them, Angela?" The intellectual gorilla asked.

Angela was still watching the trucks when she suddenly frowned deeply in concern, "Wait, why are they separating?"

Winston's brows furrowed and he turned to look at the trucks like she was doing, then seeing what she had taken notice of. The trucks diverged in half, two of them turning left while the other two turned right, both going onto two very different streets. They were heading in opposite directions.

The Swiss doctor's breathing caught, already falling apart at everything else going on, this was just the last thing she needed to see, "Where are they going? Shouldn't they be on the same planned route?"

Winston placed a hand on her shoulder and gave a stern look, "Relax, Angela. Let's just go inside and grab the paperwork and we'll ask about the trucks while we're in there, okay?"

Angela looked down at her feet and stared in that general, downward direction before finally giving a short nod.

The large gorilla opened the door for Angela to enter first and he followed in close behind her.

* * *

Upon walking into the hospital, both scientists were greeted by a cold, unsettling feeling at seeing there was nobody in the waiting room, nobody at the front desk. It looked like the hospital of a ghost town.

Angela and Winston looked to each other to make sure they weren't seeing things and the doctor nodded for Winston to follow her, heading to the door leading into the first hallway full of hospital rooms. All the doors were open, no patients inside them, and the lights off. No workers, no citizens. Nobody was there.

Winston looked up at a nearby TV screen in the hallway and noticed it flickering on a gray static screen.

Then somebody finally came around the corner at the very far end of the hallway, nothing really seeming off about them which gave Angela and Winston a sense of relief.

"Excuse me! You, down there! Do you know where everyone is at?" Angela exclaimed to the unknown figure down the hall, jogging at a slow pace to them.

Winston's eyes widened a bit and he bellowed out, "Angela, no—!"

Suddenly, the deep-voiced gorilla was interjected by the feeling of an overheated hand on his back. Almost immediately afterwards, Winston's automated defense system in his suit turned against him and set off an electric shock to start coursing through his entire body, drawing a loud cry of pain from his throat and an uncontrollable shake to rattle his body until he hit the floor, vibrating and grunting in agony.

Angela twisted around and her face turned white in horror, "Winston!"

A distortion in the air happened, followed by another figure revealing themselves behind Winston's fallen form, the figure appearing to be a short woman with a tan complexion and a smirk across her neon purple lips, "Hola, senorita." She greeted in an amused tone, flicking her purple-highlighted hair out of her face.

The doctor took a step back and Winston suddenly roared out, "Angela, run!"

And without a moment of hesitation, Angela obeyed and ran towards the other figure down the hallway, that figure immediately looking back so Angela could lock eyes with their own. Glowing, blood-red eyes stared sharply between her own, dark locks of hair hanging in the face of this intimidating man walking toward her.

"You're mine," he barked out, his voice coming out in a deep, droning tone a voice modulator mask covering the entire bottom half of his face; and with that, he pulled out a massive handgun, firing it off at Angela immediately.

The doctor shrieked and she ducked just in time, turning around another corner ahead of her into a nearby hallway, sprinting as fast as her thin legs could carry her.

The droning young man growled furiously and stomped around the corner, pointing at his female cohort who was watching behind Winston who was still being continuously pumped with electricity, "Sombra. Watch the monkey, I'll get the girl."

The young woman gave a wink, "You got it, amigo."

Winston glared up at her with rage building in his eyes.

Sombra smirked down at him confidently, "You know that suit of yours was easy to hack into. I've hijacked home Wi-Fi networks that were more difficult than that hunk of junk."

Almost immediately, Winston's fur turned deep red and his eyes lit up with bright flashes of light as he shot up from the ground and slammed the back of his massive fist into Sombra's thin figure, eliciting a loud yelp from her as she was thrown out the door into the waiting room, Winston turning to where Angela and the unknown man ran off to and his teeth gritted together in anger.

Another animalistic roar escaped his throat before he lunged down the hallway and chased after them.

* * *

Angela was rolled up into a small ball inside a supply closet, the door shut and locked from the inside as she shivered and waited for it all to be over. Without a weapon or anything to defend herself with, she was just a mere victim here. Waiting for either a chance to escape or for her inevitable doom to find her.

That answer seemed to decide itself for her at the sound of the doorknob turning with an obvious struggle as the door was locked and wouldn't open for whomever was outside trying to get in.

The knob rattled for a single second before it stopped and Angela breathed out a quiet sigh of relief.

But the relief was short-lived as a loud gunshot echoed through the room and Angela covered her mouth to keep from letting out a scream at the jump scare, pieces of broken metal bursting out against the floor at the lock being broken by the fired bullet and the door slowly creaked open. The light from the hallway cast the shadow of a gun-wielding figure standing outside.

Angela was hidden behind where the door opened in at and her blue eyes were wide as could be as she prayed that the figure just kept moving and left the supply closet be.

Sure enough, the figure's shadow faded from the doorway ever so slowly.

The Swiss doctor shut her eyes tightly and merely breathed in and out through her nostrils to keep herself calm.

"…"

That was when a strong arm suddenly wrapped tight around her throat from within the shadows behind her, the barrel of a gun pressing hard against her temple, "I'm going to give you one chance to answer this and you can walk away from this in one piece…" the deep, droning voice of the dark-haired man deadpanned into her ear.

Angela's pupils dilated in terror and she started to gasp for air desperately as he kept her in his unwavering hold.

" _Where. Is. Overwatch."_

And that was when Angela finally let out a loud, unbridled scream.

…

* * *

 **{A/N}: Quite a way to end it, eh? You probably hate me now, don't you, heheh-**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you see anything that stands out; grammar mistakes, inaccuracies, unanswered questions etc., please feel free to let me know, I appreciate any feedback you might have. :)**

 **I'm going to try to make my deadlines shorter and shorter per chapter, so with hope, I'll have the next one out extra soon.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **-Nb**


	6. Chapter 6: The Widow's Bargain

**{A/N} Wow. This Chapter was long overdue.**

 **My sincere apologies to all of you loyal readers who waited so patiently for me to post this... I can't believe it almost took me a year to finally get to posting this!**

 **I just wanted to reassure you that I am back and ready to write some more WidowGenji goodness! And this chapter is certain to give you quite a treat of that. Prepare for a few answers to some lingering questions, and perhaps a few more questions in the process!**

 **At any rate, I'm happy to be back and plan to come back with new content much sooner than this took... Thanks, everyone!**

 **-Nb**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Widow's Plea

…

Genji stood at the side of Winston's life support pod that he was sealed inside, unconscious, unmoving… in critical condition. Another friend down for the count.

Only one other Overwatch member remained beside the large gorilla, and it was Pharah. Lena Oxton, Tracer, was pulled out of the hostage situation safely and from what Genji heard, she was awake again. Just simply recovering.

But even that was a small comfort at this point. Half of what remained of Overwatch was now in the custody of a terrorist they didn't even know the identity or the motive of. The popular theory was still that Gabriel Reyes had returned from the grave a second time, only this time a bit more calculating.

What did Genji believe? He didn't know that either.

Amelie made it sound like Reyes truly wasn't involved at all, and while Genji didn't believe that for a second, he did believe her when she said that the terrorist broadcast was not being hosted by Reaper. Someone else got his mask… and for what he knew right now, that same someone else was the one who took half of the recovering Overwatch team.

He feared the worst. But even he knew that the worst was yet to come.

The Widowmaker had been spinning her web for them this whole time… and he was falling willfully into her trap.

* * *

Genji had sat down by now, next to the few remaining Overwatch members in the room, metal-layered hands folded together and his forehead pressed against them as he tried to meditate and calm himself in this increasingly stressful situation he was cornered into.

"Mister Shimada?" an Overwatch agent greeted timidly as he stepped into the room.

The agent was one of the many sent out to find any other casualties or injured agents from the attack at the hospital.

Just at the timid voice the agent had, Genji's folded hands started to shake uncontrollably. His inner calm was starting to fade rapidly.

"We could not find Doctor Ziegler. We have to assume the worst until we can find any trace of her at the attack site…"

Genji's slanted eyes opened and glared at the wall he was facing across the room, his green visor starting to glow intensely.

"… And according to the few pieces of evidence we could find, the attack was hosted by no more than two unknown individuals. There was no huge, orchestrated terrorist attack as we originally thought. Just two criminals, not even on the record."

The armored ninja shot up from his seat and darted out past the Overwatch agent, stomping over to the nearest wall in the hallway outside the room and reeling back to slam his fist into the wall as hard as he could, screaming out, "Damn it all!"

A tense silence filled the hallway, his voice echoing for a good while.

The agent gulped uncertainly, "Sir?"

Genji stared at the massive indent he left in the metal wall, simply standing there and breathing to regain his composure, "Why do you call me sir? There is no sir in charge around here anymore."

"Actually, sir," he cleared his throat, "According to the tactical chain of command, with nobody in commission to give tactical orders, you're the only one left who can issue commands to Overwatch besides the higher-ups—"

"And the higher-ups have gone silent since the public reveal of all our classified files." Genji finished for him.

The agent nodded, "Yes, sir."

Genji sighed deeply and stood straight, "Very well. I'll temporarily take command. But I ask that you not call me sir unless absolutely necessary. Which it shouldn't be, with hope."

"Of course, Mister Shimada. Not to jump the gun or anything, but do you have any orders for our remaining agents?"

"Remaining?" asked Genji.

The agent scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "Yes, Mister Shimada. Many have signed their resignations already. You must understand, we all fear for the lives of our families just by being involved with Overwatch."

Genji looked down with a thoughtful expression beneath his helmet, "Hmm… We need to find out who the hell we're dealing with. From there, we can formulate a plan."

"Not to doubt your judgement, sir, but how do we find someone who… well, who might as well not even exist?" he used the honorific of sir again unintentionally.

"We do not," Genji replied simply, turning to make his way down the hall with an intense gaze of determination.

The agent watched with a puzzled look at his response before Genji continued.

"Take whoever is left and continue your investigation of the attack on the hospital. I have sources I can rely on here to investigate the identities of our foes..."

It was starting to look like another interrogation session with Amelie was in order.

* * *

Angela let out a dull groan as she regained consciousness, her vision blurry and unsettling as she look around at her surroundings.

She found herself within a metal cell, old-fashioned jail bars trapping her inside.

The sounds of sparks exploding off of super-heated metal reverberated off the walls of the rather small room she was locked up in. Upon further investigation, she would find a young man with a welding helmet over his face as he tampered with a large, rather advanced-looking... torpedo?

"Hey, boss, your little blonde pet is awake," a girl directly across the room from Angela pointed out.

The girl had a youthful appearance about her, a dangerous spark in her violet eyes as she stared down Angela with a playful smirk. She wore a high tech variant of an armored hardsuit, seemingly flexible in material most likely for the sake of not having to sacrifice agility for extra protection. Her hair was shaved on one side with magenta wires in the place of hair, the rest of it combed over the other side of her head, blonde in color and draped down over her shoulder in the form of a braid.

She had a slushie in one hand with the other crossed over her abdomen as she sipped loudly from the obnoxiously pink straw of the large slushie cup, "Wakey wakey, hermosa." She winked.

Angela glared with a look of disgust. The young Hispanic woman was impossible to forget.

"Sombra," Angela greeted with a slight scoff, "The only blonde pet here I see is you. Can't say I'm a fan of the new look."

The slushie-wielding girl gasped sharply, "I told you she would remember me! You hit her in the head pretty hard, but nobody can forget the one and only planet-hacker herself when they meet her," Sombra practically sang in delight to which the helmeted man didn't reply.

"The new look is pretty intense, right?" Sombra smirked, "I like to think I've been augmented in a way-"

"Cut it out, Sombra," the young man working on the torpedo barked out gruffly, turning off his welding tool so he could take his mask off and look back at Angela with piercing red irises.

Even from across the room, Angela could see wiring and computer programming flashing in his crimson orbs. Her own blue eyes locked with his and widened in horror. He was unmistakably the one who captured her at the hospital.

"You-!"

"Me," he interjected in a dull tone, "Don't act so scared, Doctor Ziegler, I'm about to be the least of your fears in the days to come."

Angela darted up to her feet and gripped onto the metal cell bars with clenched fists, "Who are you?! What did you do with Winston? Or the rest of my friends for that matter!" she exclaimed accusingly.

The red-lensed man let out a quiet "tsk" and tossed his welding tool onto a nearby table nonchalantly, "So many questions, Doctor. But that's alright. Talk all you want, I always thought you had the cutest little Swiss accent. So please... ask me more," he stepped closer to the cell so she could see his face better and he smirked down at her maliciously.

Sombra frowned at that and stopped slurping on her slushie for a moment to look away, "I'm going back to the room. Come find me when you're finished playing with your pet."

The Hispanic girl took her leave and in the meantime, Angela studied his face as he stared daggers into her very soul, forcing her to look away out of discomfort.

"What's the matter, doc? Don't recognize me? You should."

Angela's gaze darted back to him sharply, "Why?"

The black-haired terrorist walked away to take his welding mask off the top of his head, "Keeping tabs on Overwatch members is your job, isn't it?" He asked, running his fingers through his hair as he dropped the mask on the table next to his wleding tool.

The blonde doctor let out a sound of disgust, "Don't flatter yourself. I know every Overwatch member to date, alive and deceased... current and former-"

Angela was abruptly interrupted by a loud, mechanical squawk that caused her to jump out of her own skin, blue eyes shooting over to find a mechanical bird staring straight at her, tilting its metal head side to side as if it were a living animal despite it clearly not being one.

The man simpered sardonically, "I'm sorry, did Corvus scare you?"

"Don't talk to me like I am a child!" She barked back.

And with that, the villain's hand darted into the cell and gripped Angela's jaw so tightly that she felt every muscle in her face tense up and ache in response.

Angela let out a pained scream and the anonymous young man's red eyes glowed deeply, "You're going to tell me where the remnants of Overwatch are hiding..."

"-no!" Angela cried out in pain as the man's grip started to slowly dislocate her jawbone.

"... or I'm going to kill you and everyone you've ever loved!" The man screamed louder than she ever could.

* * *

Genji twiddled his metal-layered thumbs silently as he stared at the woman with blue skin across from him for yet another interrogation session, an uncomfortable silence settled between them.

At first, Amelie was more than happy to oblige another mind game with her beloved old friend, her usual smirk playing her blue lips and a sparkle of challenge in her amber gaze.

That was not the case after ten minutes of them simply staring at each other wihout a word.

Now Amelie was just mad. Annoyed, bored, and mad.

With a deep scowl on her gorgeous complexion, she finally growled out, "So are we going to play again today, Genji? Or have you finally accepted defeat after so many interrogation sessions that just left you with more questions than answers?"

"I know your end game, Amelie. I know exactly what you want out of this."

Amelie was taken aback by Genji's casual tone in saying that, "Oh? Do tell."

Genji crossed his arms over his metal chest and shrugged, "You want out of this. Out of your binds... out of this base. Out of Overwatch."

"Can you blame me?"

"Not fully. Not for that."

A sharp glare pierced straight through Genji's visor from Amelie's golden irises, "Alright. Sure, let's say that's my end game as you call it, Genji. What's yours then? Because you and I both know it's not this boring, heroic plan to stop Talon and save the world."

The Japanese cyborg stared at Amelie in total silence.

A sly simper very slowly crawled its way across her lips, "No... that's too base for you. Too simple. You always saw a greater depth to things than the rest of these fools. So... what is your end game?"

Genji stood up and walked over to the door to casually unlock it, "When faced with the impending threat of annihilation. Or with disbandment, Overwatch signed a contract with every country in the world."

Amelie's thin, dark blue eyebrows rose in piqued interest.

Genji glanced back at her out of the glowing green visor that hid his true eyes behind it, "Once there wasn't a single, remaining member of the old Overwatch team in action... in the event that Overwatch truly is no more. A represenative from every country that we have affiliated with will be called to action. To pick up the pieces where we left off and take down whatever put an end to us. And Overwatch will live on."

Amelie's narrow eyes went wide in near disbelief at this confidential fact that Genji was telling her, "Wow... Wow, Raven was right, your Overwatch is very similar to a bunch of cockroaches. Get rid of one of you and you adapt and come back with ten more at your beckon call."

Genji turned completely around and his eyes squinted sharply at Amelie's chuckling remark, "Raven was right? Who's Raven?"

Amelie simpered maliciously and shrugged, "Whoops. Did I just give you a peek at the cards in my hand?"

The Japanese man stomped over to stand close at her side, pressing a palm flat against the table to lean over her with his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The beautiful Miss Lacroix gazed up at Genji with a playful wink.

Finally, Genji averted his eyes to the floor and whispered in a much, much quieter tone, "How can I get you to tell me everything you know, Amelie? Please, tell me. No more games... I just want the truth."

Amelie rolled her eyes a bit and shook her head, "The truth is going to get you killed, Genji."

"I don't care," the ninja retorted, "I have no other desire than to know the truth at this point. So tell me... and I'll give you anything you want."

The young French woman's eyes went wide as she found Genji's hand grazing up her cheek, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. Even with how cold and dead her skin looked, her cheeks visibly heated up at Genji's unexpected affection.

Amelie hesitated.

This was a bad idea. A dangerous idea. A Talon agent and an Overwatch soldier teaming up. It was doomed to have disasterous consequences.

And something about it seemed so very appealing to the spider of a woman.

After a painstaking moment of silence, Amelie looked up at him, "Get me out of here alive. I can't tell you everything I know... but I can show you."

Without a moment's hesitation, Genji reached behind him and slid a silver and green katana off his back, spinning the razor-sharp blade around in his grasp.

Amelie stared down at his sword for a long moment, unable to fight off a playful simper that snuck its way across her thin, blue lips, "I'd almost forgotten you had that with how rarely you unsheathe it... but I could never forget how long and hard it was-"

"Save your remarks for later, Amelie. As soon as I remove your binds, we have about five minutes to escape before they put the entire base on lockdown," Genji interjected.

She failed to restrain an amused chuckle and she glanced back to watch him closely as he stepped behind her and in one swift, clean uppercut, Amelie's electrically enhanced restraints all fell limp off her fit, slender form, allowing her to stand up and stretch out her muscles after being locked in place for so long.

"Ngh..." she grunted out as she rolled her shoulders, "... You always have known how to show a girl a good time."

Within seconds of Amelie's restraints being deactivated, a loud, booming alarm started to ring loudly across the entire base, the lights in the ceiling above them turning a deep, unsettling red color.

Her eyes went wide and she immediately looked to Genji with a frown, "What now, Monsieur Shimada?"

Genji walked away to the door casually and opened it up wide as he sheathed his katana. A smirk crossed his lips beneath his mask and he glanced over at her for just a moment, "We run... and Amelie?"

Amelie raised an eyebrow in question.

"Try to keep up this time," he actually teased her a bit.

A devious grin crossed her expression as she watched him dash out the door and a dark chuckle escaped her lips as she quickly followed after him.

"And here I was beginning to believe you didn't have a human bone in your body anymore, Genji."

...

* * *

 **{A/N} Real twist there, huh? What IS going through Genji's head right now?**

 **Tell me what you think! Is Genji just shrugging off responsibility and embracing his more human side or is he truly so desperate that he would release a heartless assassin like Amelie to find his friends?**

 **And most of all... who is Raven or the mysterious terrorist who claims to have a connection to Overwatch?**

 **Things are really about to heat up in the next few chapters so stay tuned for future updates!**

 **And once again, thank you for reading!**

 **-Nb**


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